List of commencement speakers at Harvard University - wikipedia List of commencement speakers at Harvard University This article is a list of commencement speakers at Harvard University. The speech takes place in Harvard Yard in June or late May of every year. Commencement speakers 2017 : Mark Zuckerberg 2016 : Steven Spielberg, film director, producer, and screenwriter -- ( video ; text ) 2015 : Deval Patrick, 71st Governor of Massachusetts -- ( video ) 2014 : Michael Bloomberg, businessman and philanthropist, former Mayor of New York City -- ( video ; audio ; text ) 2013 : Oprah Winfrey, businesswoman and talk show host -- ( video ; audio ; text ) 2012 : Fareed Zakaria, journalist, author, former TIME editor -- ( `` We Live in an Age of Progress '' video ; text ) 2011 : Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 24th President of Liberia -- ( video ) 2010 : David Souter, former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court ( video ; text ) 2009 : Steven Chu, former United States Secretary of Energy ( video ; text ) 2008 : J.K. Rowling, author, Harry Potter series -- ( `` The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination '' video ; text ) 2007 : Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder -- ( `` Great Expectations '' video ; text ) 2006 : Jim Lehrer, author and journalist -- ( video ) 2005 : John Lithgow, actor and author -- ( `` An Actor 's Own Words '' text ) 2004 : Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary - General of the United Nations ( `` Three Crises, and the Need for American Leadership '' text ) 2003 : Ernesto Zedillo, 54th President of Mexico 2002 : Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former US senator representing New York ( `` Civilization Need Not Die '' ) 2001 : Robert Rubin, 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury 2000 : Amartya Sen, economist and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University ( `` Global Doubts '' ) 1999 : Alan Greenspan, 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve ( text ) 1998 : Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and 7th President of Ireland ( text ) 1997 : Madeleine Albright, 64th United States Secretary of State ( text ) 1996 : Harold E. Varmus, scientist and Director of the National Institutes of Health ( text ) 1995 : Václav Havel, last President of Czechoslovakia and 1st President of the Czech Republic ( `` Radical Renewal of Human Responsibility '' text ) 1994 : Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States ( video ; text ) 1993 : Colin Powell, 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( video ; excepts ) 1992 : Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway 1991 : Derek Bok, 25th President of Harvard University ( text ) 1990 : Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of West Germany 1989 : Benazir Bhutto, 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan ( `` Democratic Nations Must Unite '' video ; text ) 1988 : Óscar Arias, President of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize recipient 1987 : Richard von Weizsäcker, President of the Federal Republic of Germany 1986 : Peter Carrington, 6th Baron Carrington, 6th Secretary General of NATO 1985 : Paul Volcker, economist and 12th Chairman of the Federal Reserve ( text ) 1984 : Juan Carlos I, King of Spain 1983 : Carlos Fuentes, author and diplomat 1982 : John Huston Finley, Professor of Greek Literature Emeritus, Harvard University 1981 : Thomas Watson Jr., businessman and diplomat, President of IBM, 11th President of the Boy Scouts of America, 16th United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union 1980 : Cyrus Vance, 57th United States Secretary of State 1979 : Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany 1978 : Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize - winning novelist ( `` A World Split Apart '' video ; audio ; text ) 1977 : Barbara Jordan, US Representative representing Texas ( text ) 1976 : Daniel Patrick Moynihan, US senator representing New York 1975 : Archibald Cox, Harvard Law School Professor of Law 1974 : Ralph Ellison, novelist 1973 : Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, President of the University of Notre Dame 1972 : Roy Jenkins, former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party 1971 : Alan Paton, South African novelist 1970 : Antonio Carrillo Flores, former Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1969 : Jean Rey, Belgian politician and 2nd President of the European Commission 1969 : Stewart Udall, 37th United States Secretary of the Interior 1968 : Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran ( excerpts ) 1967 : Edwin O. Reischauer, diplomat and Harvard professor 1966 : W. Averell Harriman, businessman, politician, and diplomat 1965 : Adlai Stevenson II, 31st Governor of Illinois and 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1964 : Alberto Lleras Camargo, 20th President of Colombia 1963 : U Thant, 3rd Secretary - General of the United Nations 1962 : William McChesney Martin, 9th Chairman of the Federal Reserve ( text ) 1962 : Lionel Trilling, Professor of English, Columbia University 1961 : Alec Douglas - Home, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, United Kingdom 1961 : F. Cyril James, Vice Chancellor, McGill University 1960 : Robert Menzies, 12th Prime Minister of Australia 1960 : Paul - Henri Spaak, 2nd Secretary General of NATO 1959 : Pieter Geyl, Dutch historian and Utrecht University professor 1959 : C. Douglas Dillon, 21st United States Under Secretary of State 1958 : Neil H. McElroy, 6th United States Secretary of Defense 1958 : Raymond Aron, French historian and journalist 1957 : Erwin Panofsky, art historian 1957 : Lady Barbara Jackson, British author 1956 : Herbert Butterfield, British historian and University of Cambridge professor 1956 : John F. Kennedy, US senator representing Massachusetts ( text ) 1955 : Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician 1955 : Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany 1954 : Henry Cabot Lodge, former US senator representing Massachusetts 1954 : Robert Schuman, former Prime Minister of France 1954 : Grayson L. Kirk, political scientist and 14th President of Columbia University 1953 : John P. Marquand, Pulitzer Prize - winning novelist 1953 : Lester B. Pearson, Canadian statesman and historian 1952 : John Foster Dulles, US senator representing New York 1952 : Joseph S. Clark Jr., lawyer and politician 1951 : Thornton Wilder, playwright and novelist 1951 : Warren Austin, US senator representing Vermont, 2nd United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1951 : Charles Edward Wilson, President of General Electric 1950 : Dean Acheson, statesman and lawyer 1950 : Ralph Flanders, US senator representing Vermont 1950 : Carlos P. Romulo, Filipino Minister of Foreign Affairs 1949 : Ralph Bunche, political scientist 1949 : Lucius D. Clay, Jr., General of the United States Army 1949 : Sir Oliver Franks, Baron Franks, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United Nations 1948 : Trygve Lie, 1st Secretary - General of the United Nations 1947 : George Marshall, 50th United States Secretary of State ( `` What Must Be Done ? '' text ) 1946 : Maurice J. Tobin, 6th United States Secretary of Labor 1945 : C.D. Howe, Canadian Minister of Munitions and Supply 1945 : Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist 1945 : Ernest King, Fleet Admiral, United States Navy 1944 : Walter Lippmann, journalist 1943 : Joseph Grew, 13th United States Ambassador to Japan 1943 : Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1942 : Henry L. Stimson, 45th United States Secretary of War 1942 : Frederick Paul Keppel, former President of Carnegie Corporation of New York 1942 : Raymond Gram Swing, journalist 1942 : Frank Knox, 47th United States Secretary of the Navy 1941 : Edward Wood, 3rd Viscount Halifax, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United States 1941 : Clarence Addison Dykstra, Chairman of the National Defense Board 1941 : Vannevar Bush, National Defense Research Committee 1940 : Robert Sproul, 11th President of the University of California 1940 : Carl Sandburg, author and poet 1940 : Cordell Hull, 47th United States Secretary of State 1938 : John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish novelist and historian, 15th Governor General of Canada 1934 : Harold W. Dodds, 15th President of Princeton University 1934 : Charles F. Martin, President of McGill University 1933 : Sir Ronald Lindsay, British civil servant and diplomat 1931 : Sir James Salter, author and political scientist 1929 : Ernest Barker, political scientist 1927 : Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant 1926 : Arthur Currie, General of the Canadian Corps 1924 : Owen D. Young, businessman, Dawes Commission 1923 : William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian politician 1918 : Rufus Isaacs, 1st Earl of Reading, British politician 1917 : Cecil Spring Rice, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United States of America 1914 : David F. Houston, 5th United States Secretary of Agriculture 1914 : Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, 5th Chief Justice of Canada 1910 : George Walter Prothero, British writer and historian 1909 : Sir Napier Shaw, British meteorologist 1907 : James Bryce, British historian, statesman, and diplomat ( excerpts ) 1904 : Henry Cabot Lodge, US senator representing Massachusetts 1904 : Baron Kaneko Kentarō, Japanese envoy to the United States 1904 : William Osler, Canadian physician 1900 : Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote, British diplomat 1898 : John Campbell - Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen, British politician 1890 : Leslie Stephen, British author and literary critic 1886 : Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair, British politician 1884 : Richard Claverhouse Jebb, British classical scholar and politician 1878 : Frederick Hamilton - Temple - Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, British politician 1875 : Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist and historian 1871 : George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, British politician 1862 : John Stuart Mill, British philosopher and economist 1860 : Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, British diplomat 1858 : Francis Napier, 1st Baron Ettrick, British diplomat 1853 : James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, British colonial administrator and diplomat 1846 : Thomas Grenville, British politician 1844 : Charles Lyell, British lawyer and geologist 1831 : Richard Whately, British rhetorician, logician, economist, and theologian External links Harvard commencement day website Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_commencement_speakers_at_Harvard_University&oldid=800132010 '' Categories : Harvard University - related lists Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 11 September 2017, at 17 : 54. 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Question: political philosopher who gave harvard's 1862 commencement
Answer: John Stuart Mill