List of Hofstra University honorary degree recipients

This is a list of notable honorary degree recipients from Hofstra University in New York.

Key denotes alumni of Hofstra

1940s Recipient Year NotabilityRobert Moses 1948 New York Park commissioner and chairman of the Long Island State Park CommissionTrygve Lie 1949 United Nations secretary-generalWalter Bedell Smith 1949 Commander of the First Army and ambassador to Russia

1950s Recipient Year NotabilityRobert P. Patterson 1950 Former secretary of warDwight D. Eisenhower 1950 President of Columbia University and former Army chief of staffAymar Embury II 1951 Architect of the Whitestone and Triborough bridgesWilliam Henry Harrison 1951 Head of the National Defense Production AdministrationHarry Woodburn Chase 1951 Chancellor of New York UniversityArthur S. Adams 1952 President of the American Council on Education Cornelia Otis Skinner 1952Writer and actressJohn W. Davis 1953Former United States ambassador to the United KingdomCarroll Vincent Newsom 1953Associate commissioner for Higher Education in New York StateJohn Mason Brown 1954Author and drama criticWard Melville 1954Suffolk County industrialist and civic leaderHenry Townley Heald 1955Chancellor of New York University Joan Whitney Payson 1955PhilanthropistMorris Bishop 1956Professor of Romance Literature at Cornell UniversityArthur A. Houghton Jr. 1956President of Corning Glass WorksHarold Medina 1957Judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of AppealsMilislav Demerec 1957Director of the genetics department of the Carnegie Institution of WashingtonJames E. Allen Jr. 1957New York State education commissionerCharles B. Stone III 1957Boss of the Continental Air CommandThomas G. Bergin 1958Master of Timothy Dwight CollegeLivingston T. Merchant 1959Assistant secretary of state for European Affairs

1960s Recipient Year NotabilityEric A. Walker 1960 President of Pennsylvania State UniversityMcGeorge Bundy 1960 Dean of faculty at Harvard UniversityArthur H. Dean 1961 Chairman of Cornell University Board of TrusteesGeorge Emlen Roosevelt 1961Trustee of New York UniversityAdlai Stevenson II 1961United States ambassador to the United NationsSimon H. Rifkind 1962Judge for the Southern District of New YorkSir Patrick Dean 1964British representative to the United NationsLouis H. Bauer 1964Former head of the American Medical AssociationJohn Cranford Adams 1964Hofstra presidentAlbert L. Nickerson 1964Board chairman of the MobilRobert Goheen 1965President of Princeton UniversityHenry Viscardi Jr. 1965Founder and president of Abilities Inc.George L. Cadigan 1965Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of MissouriMartin Luther King Jr. 1965President of the Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceJacob Javits 1966United States senator from New YorkHenry Fairfield Osborn Jr. 1966President of the New York Zoological SocietyStewart Udall 1966United States secretary of the interiorHarry Frank Guggenheim 1967Editor and publisher of NewsdayAugust Heckscher II 1967Parks commissioner of New York CityJames McNaughton Hester 196711th president of New York UniversityBroadus Mitchell 1967Economics professor at HofstraRobert G. Vosper 1967Former president of the American Library AssociationSidney Dillon Ripley 1968Secretary of the Smithsonian InstitutionJames Pitman 1969Former member of ParliamentEdward J. Speno 1969Member of the New York State SenateMary E. Switzer 1969Administrator of the Social and Rehabilitation Service for the US Department of Health, Education and Wellness George H. Williams 1969President of American University

1970s Recipient Year NotabilityElizabeth Koontz 1970First African-American president of the National Education AssociationEugene Nickerson 1970County executive of Nassau CountyJacques Piccard 1970Swiss oceanographerJames Herman Robinson 1970Founder of Operation Crossroads AfricaJoan Ganz Cooney 1971Co-founder of Sesame WorkshopEleazar de Carvalho 1971Music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Hofstra professorJohn W. Gardner 1971Former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and WelfareNancy Hanks 1971Chairman of the National Endowment for the ArtsBill Moyers 1971Former White House press secretaryChiang Yee 1971Professor of Chinese at Columbia UniversityAndrew Heiskell 1972Chairman and CEO of Time Inc.William J. McGill 197216th president of Columbia University Howard A. Rusk 1972Founder of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine Tom C. Clark 1973Former associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesElias James Corey 1974Professor of Organic Chemistry at Harvard UniversityClark Kerr 1974Former president of the University of CaliforniaCy Leslie 1974Founder and president of MGM/UA Home Entertainment GroupRobert Nisbet 1974Albert Schweitzer Chair of Humanities at Columbia UniversityAlan Pifer 1974President of the Carnegie CorporationAlan Schneider 1974Theatre director B.F. Skinner 1974Professor of Psychology at Harvard UniversityRobert Coles 1975Professor at Harvard Medical SchoolJohn Houseman 1975Actor, producerAryeh Neier 1975Co-founder of Human Rights WatchJames Pitman 1975Chief of the Department of Medicine at Winthrop University HospitalJoachim Prinz 1975Former president of the American Jewish CongressWalter Sullivan 1975Professor of English at Vanderbilt UniversityElie Wiesel 1975Holocaust survivor, author of NightFrank Zarb 1975Administrator of the Federal Energy AdministrationDaniel Patrick Moynihan 1976 United States ambassador to the United NationsJames Watson 1976 Director of the Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryFrancis Ford Coppola 1977Film directorWilliam Atwood 1978Former United States ambassador to Guinea and KenyaWilliam M. Batten 1978Chairman of the New York Stock ExchangeMary Calderone 1978President and co-founder of Sex Information and Education Council of the United StatesRobert Abrams 1979Attorney general of New York

1980s Recipient Year NotabilityIsaac Asimov 1980 Professor of Biochemistry at Boston UniversityArthur F. Burns 1980Former chair of the Federal ReserveBernard S. Meyer 1980Justice on the New York Court of AppealsEugene Odum 1980Professor of Ecology at the University of GeorgiaTamara Dembo 1981Professor emerita of Psychology at Clark UniversityMalcolm Forbes 1981Publisher of Forbes magazineGerald Ford 198138th president of the United StatesSamuel Pierce 1981United States Secretary of Housing and Urban DevelopmentFelix Rohatyn 1981Chairman of the Mutual Assistance CorporationNeil Simon 1981Playwright, screenwriter, actorSol Wachtler 1981Justice on the New York Court of AppealsRomare Bearden 1982ArtistCourtney Blackman 1982Governor to the Central Bank of Barbados Françoise Gilot 1982French painterJim Jensen 1982ReporterRobert Kibbee 1982Chancellor of the City University of New YorkRay Kurzweil 1982InventorHugh Carey 1983Former governor of New YorkAl D'Amato 1983United States senator from New YorkA. Leon Higginbotham Jr. 1983Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third CircuitHerbert Kelman 1983Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University James Tobin 1983Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale UniversitySanford Weill 1983Founder of the National Academy FoundationSiggi Wilzig 1983Holocaust survivor, advisor to Elie WieselMaryanne Trump Barry1984Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New JerseyPeter Drucker 1984Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate UniversityAlan Greenspan 1984EconomistTheodore W. Kheel 1984Attorney and labor mediatorGloria Steinem 1984Feminist and political activistRobert T. Beyer 1985Professor of Physics at Brown UniversityErnest L. Boyer 1985President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of TeachingTom Brokaw 1985Anchor of NBC Nightly NewsRaymond E. Brown 1985Auburn Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies at the Union Theological SeminaryWilson Goode 1985Mayor of PhiladelphiaMaxine Greene 1985William F. Russell Professor for the Foundations of Education at Columbia Teacher's CollegeArthur Levitt 1985Owner of Roll CallCarl Sagan 1985AstronomerBudd Schulberg 1985ScreenwriterArnold Burns 1986United States deputy attorney generalPeter Kalikow 1986President of H. J. Kalikow & Co.David Laventhol 1986Editor of The Washington PostHarold Arthur Poling 1986President of the Ford Motor CompanyFrancis T. Purcell 1986Nassau County executiveArnold A. Saltzman 1986BusinessmanBarbara Walters 1986JournalistE.O. Wilson 1986Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Harvard UniversityRong Yiren 1986Chairman of China International Trust and Investment CorporationWarren M. Anderson 1987Member of the New York State SenateStephen Jay Gould 1987Professor of Geology at Harvard UniversityGeorge C. Pratt 1987Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second CircuitJehan Sadat 1987Former First Lady of EgyptLes Wexner 1987Chairman of Limited BrandsJohn Dingell 1988Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from MichiganElliot Eisner 1988Professor of Art and Education at the Stanford Graduate School of EducationGalway Kinnell 1988Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for PoetryNorman F. Lent 1988Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New YorkElliot Richardson 1988Former United States secretary of commerceOlin Clyde Robison 1988President of Middlebury CollegeWhitney North Seymour 1988AttorneyWhitney North Seymour Jr. 1988Co-founder of Farrar, Straus and GirouxEdward J. Carlough 1989President of the Sheet Metal Workers International AssociationNelson DeMille 1989AuthorJohn R. Dunne 1989Member of the New York Senate from the 6th districtMarian Wright Edelman 1989President and founder of Children's Defense FundChristopher Keene 1989General director of the New York City OperaRalph S. Larsen 1989CEO of Johnson & JohnsonCharles Rangel 1989Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New YorkTony Rosenthal 1989Abstract sculptorPreston Tisch 1989Chairman of the Loews Corporation

1990s