Connecticut College has awarded honorary degrees to distinguished persons since 1981. View the list of Honorary Degree recipients.

Spring 2019
Martin Chalfie
Tulle Inger Hazelrigg

Spring 2018
Jazmine Hughes '12

Spring 2017
Colson Whitehead

Spring 2016
Rukmini Callimachi
Bryan Stevenson

Spring 2015
Eric Schlosser

Spring 2014
Noah Feldman
Leo I. Higdon Jr.

Spring 2013
Howard Gordon

Spring 2012
Louis B. Susman P’84 

Spring 2011
Cynthia Enloe ’60

Spring 2010
Mary Ellen Jukoski
Jeffrey D. Sachs

Spring 2009
Barbara Shattuck Kohn ’72
Martha C. Nussbaum

Spring 2008
Tavis Smiley

Spring 2007
Robert D. Ballard
Richard S. Kennedy

Spring 2006
Wangari Maathai

Spring 2005
Vandana Shiva
Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher
Estelle Parsons

Spring 2004
Anita L. DeFrantz ’74

Fall 2003
Benjamin R. Barber

Spring 2003
Wally Lamb

Fall 2001
Harold Hongju Koh

Spring 2001
Joseph Lieberman
Wynton Marsalis
Robert A. G. Monks
W. C. Montagnier
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
Rachel Robinson
Craig J. Venter

Fall 2000
Rev. Johnny Youngblood

Spring 2000
Arthur Gelb
Barbara Gelb
John Gardner
Cesar Pelli
Arn Chorn Pond
Jonathan Spence
Edward O. Wilson

Fall 1999
David Kessler
Paul Volcker
Jeffrey Wigand

Spring 1999
Michael Brown
Howard Gardner
Theodore Hesburgh
Frank McCourt

Spring 1998
Antoinette Dupont
Charles Gill
Mario Molina
Michael Price
Lawrence Colburn
Hugh Thompson

Fall 1997
Ric Burns
Judy Crichton

Spring 1997
James Comer
Arthur Danto
Catherine Kennedy
Paul Kennedy
Susan St. James
William Steere
Harris Wofford

Fall 1996
Miep Gies
William Gray
Adam Michnik
Grace Mirabella

Spring 1996
Tom Brokaw
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Glen and Mildred Let
Patrick McCaughey
Hugh B. Price

Fall 1995
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Robert Coles
Francis Fukuyama
Ruby Bridges Hall
Marvin Minsky
Morris Wessel
Andrew Young

Spring 1995
Alvin P. Adams, Jr.
Russell P. Baker
Sir Gordon Beveridge
Drew S. Days, III
Margaret J. Geller
Wendy Kopp
Colm O’Heocha
Edward R. Tufte

Fall 1994
Cornel West

Spring 1994
Jewell Plummer Cobb
Amitai Etzioni
Roger Fisher
Juan Somavia
George White
Kimba Wood ’66

Fall 1993
Carlos Fuentes
Sigmund Strochlitz
Louis W. Sullivan

Spring 1993
Annie Dillard
Peter Dyvig

Fall 1992
Barry Bloom
Barry Commoner
Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

Spring 1992
David A. Hays
William K. Reilly
Rosalyn S. Yalow

Fall 1991
William Cronon
Mark Salzman
Mario Vargas Llosa

Spring 1991
Jacques d'Amboise
Fred Hechinger
Grace Hechinger
Alvin Poussaint

Fall 1990
Sidney Altman
Stephen Jay Gould
Elie Wiesel

Spring 1990
Colin G. Campbell
William J. Crowe, Jr.
Joycelyn Elders
Mark Lamos

Spring 1989
Tadashi Hara
Leonard A. Lauder
Margaret Lawrence
Sara Lawrence Lightfoot
Glegg Watson

Spring 1988
Louise Ames
Oakes Ames
Guido Calabresi
William Meredith

Spring 1987
Ernest Boyer
Marian W. Edelman
Alice Rivlin

Fall 1986
Leon Sullivan

Spring 1986
Dorothy C. Goodwin
Gerald D. Laubach
Lloyd George Richards

Fall 1985
Vartan Gregorian

Spring 1985
Ellen Ash Peters
Roger Tory Peterson
Frazar Bullard Wilde

Fall 1984
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

Spring 1984
Helen Lehman Buttenwieser '27
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Theodore Ryland Sizer

Spring 1983
Paul B. Taylor
Lewis Thomas

Spring 1982
Susanne K. Langer
Chase Going Woodhouse

Spring 1981
Ella T. Grasso (Posthumous)