The University's highest honor, first awarded in 1841, is given to individuals whose contributions to the quality of life in the state and nation call for exceptional recognition. Recipients have included artist Andrew Wyeth and former President George Bush.

1990

Sandra Day O’Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice  

1991

J. Bruce Bredin, long-time UD trustee and board chairman from 1982-88

Edward G. Jefferson, former chairman and chief executive officer of Du Pont

Walter E. Massey, director of the National Science Foundation

S. Samuel Arsht, retired Wilmington attorney and benefactor  

1992

John E. Burris, Delaware business leader and long-time UD trustee

J. Allen Frear Jr., U.S. senator from Delaware from 1949-61  

1993

Anna Janney DeArmond, professor emeritus of English at UD

Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker and creator of the acclaimed PBS documentary The Civil War

Howard E. Simmons, retired vice president and senior science adviser at DuPont  

1994

Jane Richards Roth, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Hanna Holborn Gray, former president of the University of Chicago  

1996

John H. Gibbons, science adviser to President Bill Clinton and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy  

1997

Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and advocate for youth and families  

1998

Walter K. Stapleton, U.S. District Court Judge  

1999

Edmund N. Carpenter II, former president of the Delaware Bar Association and the American Judicature Society

Louis J. Freeh, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1999

James H. Gilliam Sr., past president of the National Association of Nonproft Housing Organizations

John Clifton Bogle, chairman of the board of the Vanguard Group Inc., one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world  

2000

Daisaku Ikeda, president of Soka Gakkai International, a global association of lay Buddhists  

2001

Edward G. Boehne, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the longest serving of the 12 regional Federal Reserve presidents

Alexander F. Giacco, fomer chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hercules Inc.

Arthur B. Metzner, H. Fletcher Brown Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, a pioneer in theoretical research in fluid mechanics and rheology

Martin A. Pomerantz, director and professor emeritus of the Bartol Research Institute at UD, who launched Bartol’s Antarctic research program in 1959

Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve System from 1979-87

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January 2002