Listed below are recipients from 1940 to 1949.
1949
George V. Allen, Doctor of Laws
Assistant Secretary of State
Alice Mary Baldwin, Doctor of Laws
Former Dean of the Woman's College, Duke University
Robert H. Jackson, Doctor of Laws
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
James Rhyne Killian, Doctor of Laws
President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Henry C. Sprinkle, Jr., Doctor of Divinity
Former editor, North Carolina Christian Advocate; Associate editor, World Outlook
1948
Owen J. Roberts, Doctor of Laws
Associate Justice of U.S. Supreme Court
Robert Frost, Doctor of Literature
Poet
Eugene Cannon Few, Doctor of Divinity
Church leader, author, and youth counselor
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Doctor of Science
Philanthropist and scientist
1945
Thomas Parron, Doctor of Science
Surgeon General of United States Public Health Service
1943
Clare Purcell, Doctor of Laws
Methodist Bishop
James Stevens Simmons, Doctor of Science
Surgeon General
Charles S. Stephenson, Doctor of Science
Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine, U.S. Army
Thomas A. Morgan, Doctor of Science
President, Sperry Corporation
1941
Josiah W. Bailey, Doctor of Laws
United States Senator
John R. Cunningham, Doctor of Laws
President, Davidson College
Clyde Olin Fisher, Doctor of Laws
Economist; Chairman, Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration
William E. Hocking, Doctor of Laws
Chairman, Division of Philosophy and Psychology, Harvard University
William A. Lambeth, Doctor of Divinity
President, Lake Junaluska Assembly; representative at Methodist Uniting Conference
Robert M. Lester, Doctor of Laws
Administrator, Carnegie Foundation
Harry C. Smith, Doctor of Divinity
Distinguished North Carolinian and national churchman
1940
Luther Pfahler Eisenhart, Doctor of Laws
Dean, Graduate School, Princeton University; mathematician
Hu Shih, Doctor of Laws
Ambassador of China to the United States; author
John Wesley Hanes, Doctor of Laws
Former member of Securities and Exchange Committion and under Secretary of Treasury
Costen J. Harrell, Doctor of Divinity
Methodist Bishop