| Year |
Name |
Occupation |
| 1923 |
Albert Bushnell Hart |
Former President of American Historical Association and former President of the American Political Science Association |
| 1937 |
Wesley Frank Craven |
Visiting professor of history from New York University |
| 1939 |
George Arents |
Former chairman of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees |
| 1940 |
Charles Warren |
Former Assistant Attorney General of the United States, and Pulitzer Prize winning author |
| 1941 |
Max Lerner |
Author and syndicated columnist |
| 1942 |
James T. Shotwell |
Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations at Columbia University |
| 1943 |
Oliver C. Carmichael |
Chancellor of Vanderbilt University |
| 1944 |
Lindsay Rogers |
Burgess Professor of Public Law, Columbia University |
| 1945 |
Kenneth Chorley |
President of Williamsburg Restoration and Colonial Williamsburg |
| 1946 |
James William Fulbright |
U.S. Senator (Arkansas) |
| 1947 |
The Right Honorable the Lord Inverchapel |
British Ambassador to the U.S. |
| 1948 |
Paul Eliot Green |
Playwright |
| 1949 |
Frederick D.G. Ribble |
Dean, Department of Law, The University of Virginia |
| 1950 |
Ceremony cancelled by President Pomfret |
- |
| 1951 |
John A. Krout |
Dean of Graduate Studies, Columbia University |
| 1952 |
Raymond B. Pinchbeck |
Professor of Applied Economics and Dean of Richmond College, The University of Richmond |
| 1953 |
Douglas S. Freeman |
Journalist and Historian |
| 1954 |
John A. Krout |
Vice-President and Provost, Columbia University |
| 1955 |
Bolitha J. Laws |
Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia |
| 1956 |
Lewis A. McMurran |
Member of the House of Delegates, The General Assembly of Virginia |
| 1957 |
Julian Parks Boyd |
Princeton University, Editor, “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson” |
| 1958 |
Harold Lees Fowler |
Professor of History, William & Mary |
| 1959 |
Graves Glenwood Clark |
Chancellor Professor of English, William & Mary |
| 1960 |
Walter Spencer Robertson |
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs |
| 1961 |
Carlisle H. Humelsine |
President, Colonial Williamsburg |
| 1962 |
Harold Lees Fowler |
Chair, Department of History, William & Mary |
| 1963 |
Julian Parks Boyd |
Princeton University, Editor, “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson” |
| 1964 |
Julius Adams Stratton |
President, M.I.T. |
| 1965 |
Lewis F. Powell, Jr. |
President, American Bar Association |
| 1966 |
Marjorie Hope Nicolson |
Professor of English, Emeritus, Columbia University, and Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton |
| 1967 |
John Walker |
Director, National Gallery of Art |
| 1968 |
Sir Patrick Henry Dean |
British Ambassador to the U.S. |
| 1968 |
Bishop Robert Wright Stopford |
Bishop of London |
| 1969 |
Robert Quarles Marston |
Director, National Institutes of Health |
| 1970 |
Arthur Lehman Goodhart |
University College, Oxford |
| 1971 |
Davis Y. Paschall |
President of William & Mary |
| 1972 |
Thomas Ashley Graves, Jr. |
President of William & Mary |
| 1973 |
Colgate W. Darden, Jr. |
Former Congressman, Former Governor of Virginia, Former Chancellor of William & Mary |
| 1974 |
Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. |
President of the University of Virginia |
| 1975 |
Virginius Dabney |
historian, author, journalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing |
| 1976 |
Sir Peter Ramsbotham |
British Ambassador to the U.S. |
| 1977 |
Carter O. Lowance |
Special Assistant to Virginia Governor |
| 1977 |
Mills E. Godwin, Jr. |
Former Virginia Commissioner of Administration |
| 1978 |
Ernest L. Boyer |
U.S. Commissioner of Education |
| 1979 |
Lewis F. Powell, Jr. |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court |
| 1980 |
Reverend Theodore M. Hesburg |
President of the University of Notre Dame |
| 1981 |
John W. Warner |
U.S. Senator (Virginia) |
| 1982 |
Hays T. Watkins |
President, CSX Corporation |
| 1983 |
Charles S. Robb |
Governor of Virginia |
| 1984 |
J. Carter Brown |
Director, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. |
| 1985 |
Donald W. Pritchard |
Professor, Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook |
| 1986 |
Clark Kerr |
President Emeritus, The University of California |
| 1987 |
Warren E. Burger |
Chancellor of William & Mary, former Chief Justice of the United States |
| 1987 |
Gerald L. Baliles |
Governor of Virginia |
| 1988 |
Robert Wedgeworth |
Dean of the School of Library Service, Columbia University |
| 1989 |
James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern |
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain |
| 1990 |
Eric Sevareid |
CBS News Consultant |
| 1991 |
Fang Lizhi |
Professor of Astrophysics and Former Vice Chancellor of China Science and Technology University |
| 1992 |
D. Allan Bromley |
Assistant to the President of the U.S. for Science and Technology |
| 1993 |
His Royal Highness The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales |
Prince of Wales |
| 1994 |
Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher |
Former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Chancellor of William & Mary |
| 1995 |
David S. Broder |
National political correspondent and columnist for The Washington Post |
| 1996 |
Pamela Churchill Harriman |
U.S. Ambassador to France |
| 1997 |
David McCullough |
Pulitzer Prize winning author |
| 1998 |
Robert M. Gates ’65 |
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency |
| 1999 |
Richard G. Lugar |
U.S. Senator (Indiana) |
