The university will award six honorary degrees during the university’s 2021 Commencement ceremonies. National Basketball Association great and social justice advocate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will deliver theCommencement address and receive an honorary doctor of humanities degree.
Kimberly Manning, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine will deliver keynote remarks at the School of Medicine Commencement ceremony.
The other honorary degree recipients and their degrees are:
- Christopher S. “Kit” Bond, the former U.S. senator who earned a reputation over his 40 years of distinguished public service as a skilled statesman able to build coalitions and effectively work across party lines, doctor of laws;
- Richard H. Helmholz, the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, a distinguished legal and history scholar with an expertise in medieval and early modern law, doctor of laws;
- Gerda Weissmann Klein, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and Holocaust survivor who has dedicated her life to fighting racism and intolerance and promoting Holocaust education and human rights, doctor of humanities;
- Stuart A. Kornfeld, MD, the David C. and Betty Farrell Professor of Medicine at Washington University’s School of Medicine, a renowned physician-scientist, doctor of science; and
- Shannon Watts, founder of the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, doctor of humanities.