Which school has awarded the most honorary doctorates and who has received the most? According to Wikipedia Nelson Mandela has ~26. Anyone have more?
William F. Buckley has “over 35” according to a quick biographical check. Since it is not uncommon for schools to hand out half a dozen to a dozen of the things a year, and they often give them to commencement speakers, pundits like Buckley who have done the commencement circuit probably picked them up at an alarming rate. Buckley’s just the first guy I thought of.
My own school gave honoraries to Rod Serling, Isaac Asimov, William F. Buckley, and lots of people you never heard of. And they gave one to Don Meredith. Hey, at least it got the school mentioned on Monday Night Football.
Theodore M. Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame, was awarded more than 150 honorary degrees.
Searching on over one hundred honorary degrees turns up a host of people.
Elie Wiesel
Gardner Calvin Taylor (emeritus pastor of Brooklyn’s Concord Baptist Church)
John Hope Franklin (historian)
Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan (Indian scholar-statesman)
Demetrio Sodi-Pallares (cancer researcher)
Mary Robinson (Former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights)
Bill Cosby
Daisaku Ikeda (Buddhist leader in Japan)
Ernest L. Boyer (president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)
Ravi Shankar, only 12.