Universities sometimes choose to award honorary degrees to recognize special achievement, especially among their faculty and alumni. These degrees are not earned in the everyday sense of accumulating appropriate, organized sequences of classroom credit. Rather, honorary degrees are a means of citing particular achievement or service, sometimes to the university and sometimes on a broader scale.
The University of Northern Iowa was late in beginning to award honorary degrees. Not until 1975, as the university approached its 100th anniversary, did James Schell Hearst receive the first UNI honorary degree. Since that time the university has chosen to honor a number of people, most of whom have been faculty or alumni of UNI.
Listed below are the recipients of UNI honorary degrees, the degrees that they received, and the date on which they received them. Follow the linked names to short biographical sketches of the degree recipients.
1975--James Schell Hearst, Doctor of Literature, May 17, 1975
1977--Rutherford David Rogers, Doctor of Literature, May 14, 1977
1979--Herbert Victor Hake, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 19, 1979
1983--Mary Louise Petersen, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 7, 1983
1983--Leland Livingston Sage, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 7, 1983
1985--Allen Walker Read, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 11, 1985
1985--Ronald William Roskens, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 11, 1985
1987--William C. Lang, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 16, 1987
1988--William Thomas Pettit, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 14, 1988
1990--Ralph Gordon Hoxie, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 12, 1990
1991--Mona Van Duyn, Doctor of Literature, May 11, 1991
1995--Gary R. Kelley, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 13, 1995
1997--George Irving Shirley, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 10, 1997
1998--R. Wayne Richey, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 9, 1998
2005--Christine H. B. Grant, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 7, 2005
2005--Rex B. Eno, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 7, 2005
2006--Leroy H. Redfern, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 6, 2006
2008--Sheri Greenawald, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 10, 2008
2008--Nancy Aossey, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 10, 2008
2008--Robert Eugene Yager, Doctor of Humane Letters, December 20, 2008
2010--Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 8, 2010
2010--Mildred Kalish, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 8, 2010
2010--Stephen J. Rapp, Doctor of Literature, May 8, 2010
2015--Thomas Harkin, Nancy J. Powell, Gayle Johns Rose, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 9, 2015
2015-- Simon Estes, Doctor of Humane Letters, December 19, 2015
2016-- James A. Leach, Doctor of Humane Letters, December 17, 2016
2017-- Constantine "Deno" Curris, Doctor of Humane Latters, May 6, 2017
2017--Robert James Waller, Doctor of Humane Letters, May 6, 2017
Compiled by University Archivist Gerald L. Peterson, with research assistance by Intern Dana Wallace and Student Assistants Amy Yates and Kimberly Nurre, January 2010; updated, June 12, 2015 (GP). Updated by Library Associate Dave Hoing, November 2017.