Graduation Speakers in Milton's Past

In 2003, director of college counseling Rod Skinner ’72 P’03 wrote in Milton Magazine that Hemingway would have called Milton's graduation “a beauty day”: a magical moment when a rainy New England spring finally retreated to reveal a cloudless, clear backdrop for the congratulations and good-byes about to be said.

Graduations, of course, share with literature that inability to stand in isolation: Each milestone allows the graduate and the audience to remember those that came before—whether it rained or didn’t, whether the speakers stumbled or shone, whether a favorite relative traveled 2,000 miles to witness the day—and to consider the graduations, at the Academy and in one’s family, that might lie ahead.

At Milton, graduating seniors are confronted with something new to most of them: a dress code. Girls wear white, and boys wear a jacket and tie. (For those who lament current fashion trends, here is a moment of calm.) Milton begins the annual graduation festivities with an informal procession in which the seniors, starting at Hallowell House, walk by all the houses, cheer—loudly, you’re likely to notice—and say goodbye to underclassmen.

The formal graduation procession begins at Straus, where each student receives a flower. A bagpiper then leads the entire faculty, underclass students and seniors in a march to their seats.

Tradition also dictates that Milton seniors vote for one boy and one girl to speak on behalf of the class at graduation. Diplomas at Milton are given in random order, and the last student to graduate is given a sock of quarters—one from each classmate.

After the ceremony, students say farewell to faculty, who have formed a receiving line.
Milton also enjoys a tradition of fine and inspirational speakers. (Note that boys and girls had different speakers until 1985.) Following is a sampling:

A selection of Milton Academy Graduation Speakers

1900
Dr. Felix Adler

1926
Hon. Joseph Clark Grew, Under Secretary of State

1927
Dr. Arthur Ernest Morgan, President of Antioch College

1928
Professor Hans Zinsser, of Harvard University (authority on warfare)

1932
Hon. Arthur Atwood Ballantine, LL.D., Under Secretary of the Treasury of the US

1934 Boys
Rev. Joel Babcock Hayden D.D., Headmaster of Western Reserve Academy

1939 Boys
Hon. Charles Francis Adams, great-great-grandson of President John Adams

1939 Girls
Dr. Erdman Harris

1942
Hon. Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakian Minister of Foreign Affairs

1943 Girls
Rev. John Crocker, Headmaster Groton School

1943 Boys
Mr. B. Edwin Hutchinson, Vice President of the Chrysler Corporation of Detroit

1945
Midyear graduation in January due to war

1947 Girls
Rev. A. Graham Baldwin, Phillips Academy, Andover

1949 Girls
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

1950 Girls
Rev. William Edgar Park, President of the Northfield School

1952 Boys
John White Hallowell, Headmaster Western Reserve Academy

1958 Boys
Hon. Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr.

1959 Girls
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge

1959 Boys
Mr. Robert Francis Kennedy, class of 1944

1960 Boys
Congressman Frances P. Bolton

1961 Boys
Hon. Paul C. Reardon

1962 Boys
Henri Peyre

1962 Girls
Headmaster

1964 Boys
Howard K. Smith, American Broadcasting Company

1965 Boys
Hon. Elliot Lee Richardson, Lieutenant Governor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, grad of Milton

1965 Girls
Mr. David Rockefeller

1966 Boys
David T.W. McCord, retired executive Director of the Harvard Fund, Harvard University, poet and essayist

1966 Boys
Daniel S. Cheever, Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh, a member of the Board of Trustees, and alumnus, parent.

1974 Girls
Art Buchwald

1974 Boys
Donald B. Straus class of 1934, American Arbitration Association

1975 Girls
Marian Wright Edelman, Director, Children's Defense Fund of the Washington Research Project

1975 Boys
Sanford Cardin was valedictorian
Clifton Daniel, The New York Times

1976 Girls
Mr. George A. Plimpton

1976 Boys
George H.W. Bush, 40th President of the United States and a former Director of Central Intelligence

1977 Boys
F. Lee Bailey

1979 Girls
Le Anne Schreiber, Sports Editor, New York Times

1979 Boys
Vice-Admiral James B. Stockdale

1980 Girls
Brendan Gill, Theatre Critic of the New Yorker

1980 Boys
Hon. Elliot L. Richardson

1982 Girls
Nannerl O. Keohane, President of Wellesley College

1982 Boys
Christopher Lydon, News Anchorman, WGBH-TV, PBS

1984 Girls
Theodore L. Elliot, Jr. Dean
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

1986
Edward B. Fiske, Education Editor, The New York Times

1987
Norman Dorsen, President, American Civil Liberties Union, Stokes Professor of Law, New York University

1988
Liz Walker, Anchor, WBZ - TV

1989
Nannerl Keohane - President, Wellesley College

1990
Sister Jon Julie Sullivan, Child Care Advocate, Project Hope Shelter

1991
Harold Raynolds, Jr., Mass. Commissioner of Education

1992
Anthony Lewis, Columnist, The New York Times

1993
Deval Patrick, ‘74, Attorney, Hill and Barlow (and Massachusetts gubernatorial hopeful)

1994
Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and Director of Children's Defense Foundation

1995
Honorable Brereton Jones, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

1997
Samina Shaepard Quraeshi, Director of Design, National Endowment for the Arts

1998
Tom Cleveland, Former Milton Academy Chaplain

1999
Rick Pitino, Celtics Coach

2000
David Lindsay-Abaire ‘88, Playwright

2001
Dr. Paul Farmer, Partners in Health

2002
Senator Edward Kennedy ‘50

2003
Bill Clinton, 41st President of the United States

2004
Austan Goolsbee ’87, economist and Professor of Economics at U Chicago

2005
Bertha Coombs ’80, CNBC financial and business reporter

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