List of recipients
Year |
Laetare Medalist |
Position |
Year |
Laetare Medalist |
Position |
1883 |
John Gilmary Shea |
Historian |
1949 |
Irene Dunne Griffin |
Actress |
1884 |
Patrick Charles Keely |
Architect |
1950 |
General Joseph L. Collins |
Soldier |
1885 |
Eliza Allen Starr |
Art Critic |
1951 |
John Henry Phelan |
Philanthropist |
1886 |
General John Newton |
Engineer |
1952 |
Thomas E. Murray |
Member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission |
1887 |
Edward Preuss |
Publicist |
1953 |
I.A. O'Shaughnessy |
Philanthropist |
1888 |
Patrick V. Hickey |
Founder and Editor of The Catholic Review |
1954 |
Jefferson Caffery |
Diplomat |
1889 |
Anna Hanson Dorsey |
Novelist |
1955 |
George Meany |
Labor Leader |
1890 |
William J. Onahan |
Organizer of the American Catholic Congress |
1956 |
General Alfred M. Gruenther |
Soldier |
1891 |
Daniel Dougherty |
Orator |
1957 |
Clare Boothe Luce |
Diplomat |
1892 |
Henry F. Brownson |
Philosopher and Author |
1958 |
Frank M. Folsom |
Industrialist |
1893 |
Patrick Donohue |
Founder of the Boston Pilot |
1959 |
Robert Daniel Murphy |
Diplomat |
1894 |
Augustin Daly |
Theatrical Producer |
1960 |
George N. Shuster |
Educator |
1895 |
Mary Anne Sadlier |
Novelist |
1961 |
John F. Kennedy |
President of the United States |
1896 |
General William Starke Rosencrans |
Soldier |
1962 |
Francis J. Braceland |
Psychiatrist |
1897 |
Thomas Addis Emmet |
Physician |
1963 |
Admiral George Whelan Anderson, Jr. |
Chief of Naval Operations |
1898 |
Timothy Edward Howard |
Jurist |
1964 |
Phyllis McGinley |
Poet |
1899 |
Mary Gwendolin Caldwell |
Philanthropist |
1965 |
Frederick D. Rossini |
Scientist |
1900 |
John A. Creighton |
Philanthropist |
1966 |
Patrick F. & Patricia Caron Crowley |
Founders of The Christian Movement |
1901 |
William Bourke Cockran |
Orator |
1967 |
J. Peter Grace |
Industrialist |
1902 |
John Benjamin Murphy |
Surgeon |
1968 |
Robert Sargent Shriver |
Diplomat |
1903 |
Charles Jerome Bonaparte |
Lawyer |
1969 |
William J. Brennan Jr. |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court |
1904 |
Richard C. Kerens |
Diplomat |
1970 |
Dr. William B. Walsh |
Physician |
1905 |
Thomas B. Fitzpatrick |
Philanthropist |
1971 |
Walter Kerr & Jean Kerr |
Drama Critic and Author |
1906 |
Francis J. Quinlan |
Physician |
1972 |
Dorothy Day |
Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement |
1907 |
Katherine Eleanor Conway |
Journalist and Author |
1973 |
Rev. John A. O'Brien |
Author |
1908 |
James C. Monaghan |
Economist |
1974 |
James A. Farley |
Business Executive and Former Postmaster General |
1909 |
Frances Tieran (Christian Reid) |
Novelist |
1975 |
Sr. Ann Ida Gannon, BMV |
President of Mundelein College |
1910 |
Maurice Francis Egan |
Author and Diplomat |
1976 |
Paul Horgan |
Author |
1911 |
Agnes Repplier |
Author |
1977 |
Mike Mansfield |
Former Senate Majority Leader |
1912 |
Thomas M. Mulry |
Philanthropist |
1978 |
Msgr. John Tracy Ellis |
Church Historian |
1913 |
Charles George Herbermann |
Editor of the Catholic Encyclopedia |
1979 |
Helen Hayes |
Actress |
1914 |
Edward Douglass White |
Chief Justice of the United States |
1980 |
Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill Jr. |
Speaker of the House |
1915 |
Mary V. Merrick |
Philanthropist |
1981 |
Edmund Sixtus Muskie |
Secretary of State |
1916 |
James Joseph Walsh |
Physician and Author |
1982 |
John Francis Cardinal Dearden |
Archbishop Emeritus of Detroit |
1917 |
Admiral William Shepherd Benson |
Chief of Naval Operations |
1983 |
Edmund & Evelyn Stephan |
Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees and his wife |
1918 |
Joseph Scott |
Lawyer |
1984 |
John T. Noonan, Jr. |
Lawyer |
1919 |
George L. Duval |
Philanthropist |
1985 |
Guido Calabresi |
Dean of the Yale Law School |
1920 |
Lawrence Francis Flick |
Physician |
1986 |
Thomas & Mary Elizabeth Carney |
Chairman of the Board of Trustees and his wife |
1921 |
Elizabeth Nourse |
Artist |
1987 |
Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC |
President of the University of Notre Dame |
1922 |
Charles Patrick Neill |
Economist |
1988 |
Eunice Kennedy Shriver |
Founder & Chairwoman of the Special Olympics |
1923 |
Walter George Smith |
Lawyer |
1989 |
Walker Percy |
Novelist |
1924 |
Charles Donagh Maginnis |
Architect |
1990 |
Sister Thea Bowman (posthumously) |
Educator |
1925 |
Albert Francis Zahm |
Scientist |
1991 |
Corinne Lindy Boggs |
Former Louisiana Congresswoman |
1926 |
Edward Nash Hurley |
Businessman |
1992 |
Daniel Patrick Moynihan |
U.S. Senator from New York |
1927 |
Margaret Anglin |
Actress |
1993 |
Donald R. Keough |
Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees |
1928 |
John Johnson Spaulding |
Lawyer |
1994 |
Sidney Callahan |
Educator and Journalist |
1929 |
Alfred Emmanuel Smith |
Statesman |
1995 |
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin |
Archbishop of Chicago |
1930 |
Frederick Philip Kenkel |
Publicist |
1996 |
Sister Helen Prejean |
Death Penalty Abolitionist |
1931 |
James J. Phelan |
Businessman |
1997 |
Rev. Virgilio Elizondo |
Theologian and Activist |
1932 |
Stephen J. Maher |
Physician |
1998 |
Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino |
Medical Ethicist and Educator |
1933 |
John McCormack |
Artist |
1999 |
Philip Gleason |
Professor Emeritus of History, Notre Dame |
1934 |
Genevieve Garvan Brady |
Philanthropist |
2000 |
Andrew McKenna |
Chairman of the Board of Trustees |
1935 |
Francis Hamilton Spearman |
Novelist |
2001 |
Msgr. George G. Higgins |
Priest and Labor Activist |
1936 |
Richard Reid |
Journalist and Lawyer |
2002 |
Father John Smyth |
Executive Director of Maryville Academy |
1937 |
Jeremiah D. M. Ford |
Scholar |
2003 |
Peter and Margaret O'Brien Steinfels |
Editors of Commonweal |
1938 |
Irvin William Abell |
Surgeon |
2004 |
Father J. Bryan Hehir |
President of Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston |
1939 |
Josephine Van Dyke Brownson |
Catechist |
2005 |
Dr. Joseph E. Murray |
Surgeon & Nobel Prize Winner |
1940 |
General Hugh Aloysius Drum |
Soldier |
2006 |
Dave Brubeck |
Jazz Pianist |
1941 |
William Thomas Walsh |
Journalist and Author |
2007 |
Patrick McCartan |
Chairman of the Board of Trustees |
1942 |
Helen Constance White |
Author and Teacher |
2008 |
Martin Sheen |
Actor |
1943 |
Thomas Francis Woodlock |
Editor |
2009 |
NOT AWARDED (SEE BELOW) |
|
1944 |
Anne O'Hare McCormick |
Journalist |
2010 |
Dana Gioia |
Former Chairman of National Endowment for the Arts |
1945 |
Gardiner Howland Shaw |
Diplomat |
2011 |
Sister Mary Scullion, R.S.M., & Joan McConnon |
Social Advocates |
1946 |
Carlton J. H. Hayes |
Historian and Diplomat |
2012 |
Ken Hackett |
Former President of Catholic Relief Services |
1947 |
William G. Bruce |
Publisher and Civic Leader |
2013 |
Sister Susanne Gallagher, S.P.
Sister Mary Therese Harrington, S.H.
Rev. James H. McCarthy |
Founders of S.P.R.E.D. (Special Religious Education Development Network) |
1948 |
Frank C. Walker |
Postmaster General and Civic Leader |
2014 |
Kenneth R. Miller |
Professor of Biology at Brown University |