2011: Stephen Lang, Actor and playwright. Video.
2010: Sam Donaldson, News Correspondent, ABC News. Video.
2009: Richard Dreyfuss, Actor, and Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania
2008: Ken Burns, Director and Producer of Documentary Films
2007: Dirk Kempthorne, US Secretary of the Interior and Jeff Shaara, Novelist
2006: Tom Brokaw, Special Correspondent, NBC News
2005: Jesse Jackson, Jr., US House of Representatives, Illinois 2nd District, and Harold Holzer, Co-Chair of the US Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and Senior Vice President for External Affairs for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
2004: Frank Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court
2003: Tom Ridge, US Secretary of Homeland Security
2002: Lynne V. Cheney, 2nd Lady of the United States
2001: Richard J. Durbin, US Senator from Illinois
2000: James McPherson, Historian, and Christine Todd Whitman, Governor of New Jersey
1999: George E. Pataki, Governor of New York
1998: John Hope Franklin, Historian
1997: Bruce Babbitt, US Secretary of the Interior
1996: Sandra Day O'Connor, Associate Justice for the US Supreme Court
1995: Gabor Boritt, Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College
1994: Henry Cisneros, US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
1993: Shelby Foote, Novelist
1992: Gen. Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1991: J. Seward Johnson, Sculptor
1990: Jack Kemp, US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
1989: Mario Cuomo, Governor of New York
1988: William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
1987: James R. Thompson, Governor of Illinois
1986: Wreath Laying Only
1985: Wreath Laying Only
1984: Wreath Laying Only
1983: Wreath Laying Only
1982: Wreath Laying Only
1981: Wreath Laying Only
1980: Wreath Laying Only
1979: Wreath Laying Only
1978: Wreath Laying Only
1977: Wreath Laying Only
1976: Wreath Laying Only
1975: Wreath Laying Only
1974: Wreath Laying Only
1973: Wreath Laying Only
1972: Wreath Laying Only
1971: Wreath Laying Only
1970: Wreath Laying Only
1969: Wreath Laying Only
1968: Wreath Laying Only
1967: George N. Wadew, Pennsylvania Senate, 31st District
1966: N. Neiman Craley, US House of Representatives, Pennsylvania 19th District
1965: John Hope Franklin, Historian
1964: William A. Coblenz
1963: William W. Scranton, Governor of Pennsylvania
1962: Hon. John Morgan Davis, Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania
1961: Everett M. Dirksen, US Senator from Illinois
1960: Murray Snyder
1959: Arthur S. Fleming, President of the University of Oregon
1958: Maj. Gen. Anthony Drexel Biddle, United States Diplomat
1957: Dr. Clyde C. Walton
1956: Gaganvihari L. Mehta, Indian Ambassador to the United States
1955: Dr. Charles W. Heathrote
1954: Dr. A.M.J. Klein
1953: Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Secretary of Commerce of the State of Pennsylvania
1952: Dr. Byron K. Horne
1951: Adlai Stevenson, Governor of Illinois
1950: Dr. Henry W.A. Hanson
1949: Lt. Gen. John C.H. Lee, Retired Lt. Gen. for the U.S. Army
1948: Oscar F. Chapman, US Secretary of the Interior
1947: William S. Livengood
1946: Hon. Jennings Randolph, House of Representatives, West Virginia 2nd District