| Year | Speaker | Speech |
| 2025 | Diane Foley, president of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation | Speech |
| 2024 | Shital Vora, CEO and co-founder of Global Brigades | Speech |
| 2023 | Marlee Matlin, Academy Award-winning actress | Speech |
| 2022 | Dwyane Wade, Three-time NBA champion who led Marquette to the Final Four in 2003 | Speech |
| 2021 | John Ridley, Director, screenwriter, novelist, playwright and showrunner | Speech |
| 2020 | No Commencement due to COVID-19 | |
| 2019 | David Brooks, New York Times best-selling author and political commentator | Speech |
| 2018 | Jeannie and Jim Gaffigan, Comedians, actors, writers and producers | Speech |
| 2017 | Sister Maria Marciano, O.P., Dominican sister from Brazil who serves Haiti’s poorest citizens | Speech |
| 2016 | Dr. Judith Mayotte, Teacher, author, television producer and humanitarian | Speech |
| 2015 | Sister Margaret “Peggy” O’Neill, S.C., Founder of El Centro Arte Para la Paz in El Salvador | Speech |
| 2014 | Rev. James Martin, S.J., Jesuit priest, writer and Culture Editor of the Jesuit magazine America | Speech |
| 2013 | Bill Cosby, Actor/Comedian - (Marquette revoked Cosby's honorary degree in 2015) | Speech |
| 2012 | Hank Aaron, Baseball Legend | Speech |
| 2011 | David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author | Speech |
| 2010 | Wendy Kopp, Founder - Teach for America | Speech |
| 2009 | Dick Enberg, Sports Brodcaster & Author of McGuire | Speech |
| 2008 | Andrew Natsios, Special Envoy for Darfur | Speech |
| 2007 | Steve Rushin, Sports Journalist | Speech |
| 2006 | Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor | Speech |
| 2005 | Cokie Roberts, Broadcast Journalist | Speech |
| 2004 | Wayne Sanders, Businessman | Speech |
| 2003 | Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop | Speech |
| 2002 | Stephen Covey, Author | Speech |
| 2001 | Fred "Mister" Rogers, TV Personality | Speech |
| 2000 | R.W. Apple, Jr., Journalist | Speech |
| 1999 | Janine Geske, Director of Resolution Center, Marquette University | Speech |
| 1998 | Dr. Howard Fuller, Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning | Speech |
| 1997 | Rembert Weakland, Archbishop | Speech |
| 1996 | Tommy Thompson, Governor of Wisconsin | Speech |
| 1995 | Mr. Edward Brennan, Chairman and CEO Sears, Roebuck and Co. | Speech |
| 1994 | His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago | Speech |
| 1993 | Hon. Frank Shakespeare, Ambassador to the Vatican; Ambassador to Portugal | Speech |
| 1992 | Barbara Bush, First Lady | Speech |
| 1991 | James Coleman, Economist | Speech |
| 1990 | Daniel Pilarczyk, Archbishop of Cincinnati | Speech |
| 1989 | William J. Wilson,Professor, University of Chicago | Speech |
| 1988 | William Rehnquist, Supreme Court Justice | Speech |
| 1987 | Michael Novak, American Catholic philosopher, writer, and diplomat | Speech |
| 1986 | Rev. John Powell, SJ, Professor of Theology, Loyola University | Speech |
| 1985 | C. Everett Koop, Surgeon General | Speech |
| 1984 | Hanna Holborn Gray, President, University of Chicago | Speech |
| 1983 | Loret Ruppe, Director of the Peace Corp | Speech |
| 1982 | Edmund Muskie, Former Sec. of State, Former U.S. Senator | Speech |
| 1981 | Rev. Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., Theologian | Speech |
| 1980 | Most Rev. Francisco F. Claver, Bishop of Malaybay, P.I. | Speech |