Four years before he was elected president of the United States, Senator John F. Kennedy took the stage at the old Boston Garden to address the 1,384 members of Northeastern University's Class of 1956.
The theme of his inaugural address on June 17 was “It's Your America Now,” but the high-energy speech was also very prescient. While terms like artificial intelligence and machine learning were not yet part of the American vocabulary, Kennedy made a prediction.
It could have been built in 2023.
“We are on the threshold of automation, which will transform an industrialized state like ours long before other states even hear about it,” he said. “We are already seeing new industries, new products, new processes.”
History suggests that Kennedy is the biggest name to ever give a Northeastern commencement address, but the list is long and distinguished. It includes politicians, journalists, scientists, scholars, actors, entrepreneurs, activists and business leaders.
Mariam Naficy, a serial entrepreneur, e-commerce pioneer and creator economy innovator, will be the keynote speaker at Northeastern's 2023 undergraduate commencement on Sunday, May 7, at Fenway Park.
Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of Chobani, delivered last year's commencement address.
This story includes only undergraduate speakers, or in the early years, the only speakers. It does not include graduate speakers or those who spoke at the afternoon or fall events that are no longer held (for example, Bruins legend Bobby Orr addressed fall graduates in 1984).
The story also does not include honorary degree recipients (such as former South African President Nelson Mandela in 1988) or speakers at the Law School, CPS, individual colleges, or the global campus.
There were no undergraduate commencement speakers from 1972-76.
Josiah H. Quincy, the former mayor of Boston and later assistant secretary of the US Navy, addressed the first class of 20 graduates in 1902.
Bill Clinton is the only sitting president to address Northeastern graduates when he gave the commencement address in 1993. Clinton, who received more than 200 invitations to speak at colleges that year, said he chose Northeastern because of its signature cooperation program.
Clinton was joined by Senator Edward Kennedy (Northeastern's 1965 and 1977 commencement speaker), Senator John Kerry (Northeastern's 2016 commencement speaker), and former Governor Mike Dukakis (Northeastern's 1984 commencement speaker).
Clinton made a joke about Boston's infamous traffic jams and compared them to working with Congress.
“This is the second largest example of gridlock in the United States,” he said.
Coretta Scott King, wife of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was Northeastern's commencement speaker in 1971, while another civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, addressed the graduates in 1978.
Elizabeth Dole, secretary of the US Department of Transportation and wife of Senator Bob Dole, was the commencement speaker in 1986, with First Lady Barbara Bush following in 1991.
Bush urged Northeastern graduates to practice tolerance, show compassion and lead by example.
“Tolerance is much more than respecting people of a different race,” Bush said. “It's a constant stream of small actions in our daily lives, big or small choices we make every day in the way we think, talk, and treat other people.”
Donna Harris Lewis, the widow of former Northeastern and Boston Celtics basketball star Reggie Lewis, wiped away tears as she addressed the 1994 graduates.
In 1998, Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union from 1985-91, told 1,600 Northeastern graduates to “be optimistic” and work for world peace.
“Please remember a lesson of the 20th century,” he said. “One cannot impose happiness on nations by imposing any kind of forced utopia.”
“The Russian people paid a heavy price,” Gorbachev said.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's inaugural address in 2000 focused on the suffering suffered by women, including victims of domestic violence.
“Some say it's all cultural and there's nothing we can do about it,” he said. “I say it's criminal and each of us has an obligation to stop it.”
Actor Ed Asner, who famously played Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, was the 1989 commencement speaker. Asner, whose daughter was among the 4,000 graduates that year, praised the Chinese students in their struggle for freedom in the wake of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, addressed Northeastern graduates in 2012. In his speech, he recalled how serving in the military as a young man helped shield him from the reality of being black.
“The Army, in those days, was the most socially progressive institution for blacks in this country, while segregation was still the law of the land,” he said. “I belong to an institution that was only concerned with your performance and your potential.”
Powell told Northeastern graduates that he skipped his own commencement ceremony from the City College of New York in 1958. He was hanging out with friends instead.
“You didn't get to cross the stage and call your name, so I figured my mother wouldn't notice I wasn't there,” Powell said.
David Nordman is executive editor of Northeastern Global News. Follow him on Twitter @davenordman.
