1936 None. Remarks by Robert D. Leigh
1937 W. H. Kilpatrick
1938 Frederick Lewis Allen speech
1939 Dorothy Canfield Fischer
1940 Henry Wallace
1941 Robert Lynd
1942 William L. Batt speech
1943 Robert D. Leigh
1944 Alexander Meiklejohn
1945 Justice Frank Murphy
1946 Reinhold Niebuhr
1947 Lewis Webster Jones
1948 Erich Fromm
1949 Hubert H. Humphrey
1950 Reinhold Niebuhr
1951 Mary Josephine Shelly
1952 Harry Allen Overstreet
1953 Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
1954 Franklin Ford
1955 W. Averell Harriman
1956 Howard M. Jones
1957 Alvin Eurich
1958 Jacques Barzun
1959 George Boas speech
1960 Francis Fergusson
1961 Henri Peyre
1962 Kenneth Burke Bennington College Calendar of Events, Spring 1962 | Bennington College Bulletin Alumnae Issue vol 31 n 2 pp. 4-10
1933 David Reisman
1964 William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
1965 Gene Baro Program
1966 Howard Nemerov photograph
1967 Russell Baker Announcement | Program
1968 Thomas P. F. Hoving
1969 Denise Levertov speech
1970 Kurt Vonnegut speech
1971 Anais Nin speech
1972 Jimmy Garrison
1973 Sr. Readings & Performances
1974 Thomas Brockway speech
1975 Carol Channing speech
1976 Joseph Iseman
1977 Elizabeth Holtzman
1978 Mitchell Markowitz ‘75 Program
1979 Vivian Gornick Vanguard Volume 1 Issue 3 | Quadrille Aug 1979 vol 13 n 1 | Program
1980 Elizabeth Swados ‘73 Program
1981 Bernard Malamud Quadrille, Vol 15, No 1
1982 Joseph S. Murphy
1983 Frederick Wiseman
1984 Howard Nemerov
1985 Elizabeth Swados ‘73
1986 Tillie Olsen Program
1987 Barbara Lazear Ascher ‘68
1988 Elizabeth Frank ‘67
1989 Ellen McCulloch Lovell ‘69 speech
1990 Joan Tower '61
1991 Harvey Gantt
1992 Harvey Fierstein
1993 Kay Crawford Murray '56
1994 Harvey Lichtenstein '53
1995 Irene Borger '71
1996 Mark Gearan
1997 Jane Alexander
1998 Linda Wertheimer
1999 Peter Hedges
2000 Gay McDougall '69
2001 Rick Moody
2002 Meredith Monk
2003 Edith Velmans
2004 Shirin Ebadi speech
2005 Jonathan Lethem '86 speech | photos | Jonathan Lethem '86 and Steven Bach photo
2006 Glen Van Brummelin
2007 Mac Maharaj
2008 Rebecca Tinsley
2009 Hendrik Hertzberg
2010 Melissa Rosenberg ’86
2011 Tim Daly ’79
2012 Peter Dinklage ’91
2013 Elizabeth Coleman
2014 Johnnetta Cole coverage
2015 Gloria Steinem speech
2016 Jane Chu coverage
2017 Cornell Brooks speech | coverage
2018 Liz Lerman coverage
2019 Mountain Man (band) Amelia Meath, Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig coverage
2020 Nigel Poor ’86 Commencement Eve coverage and Commencement Day coverage
2021 Darren Walker