Listed below are recipients from 1950 to 1959.
1959
Edwin M. Gill, Doctor of Laws
Treasurer, State of North Carolina
Nolan B. Harman, Doctor of Divinity
Methodist Bishop
Richard A. Harvill, Doctor of Laws
President, University of Arizona
Hugh T. Lefler, Doctor of Laws
Kenan Professor of History, University of North Carolina
Benjamin Lee Smith, Doctor of Laws
Superintendent Emeritus, Greensboro City Schools
1958
William C. Friday, Doctor of Laws
President, Consolidated University of North Carolina
Charles S. Rhyne, Doctor of Laws
President, American Bar Association
James A. Shannon, Doctor of Science
Director, National Institutes of Health
Archibald L. M. Wiggins, Doctor of Laws
Banker; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Atlantic Coastline Railroad
1957
George W. Harley, Doctor of Humanities
Medical missionary to Africa
L. Quincy Mumford, Doctor of Literature
Librarian of Congress
Algernon B. Reese, Doctor of Laws
President, American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology
William R. Vanlentiner, Doctor of Laws
Director, North Carolina Museum of Art
1954
Charles F. Carroll, Doctor of Laws
North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Ralph W. Sockman, Doctor of Letters
Minister, Christ Church, Methodist, New York City
1953
George G. Allen, Doctor of Laws
Chairman of the Board, The Duke Endowment; Duke University Trustee
William Hane Wannamaker, Doctor of Laws
Vice President Emeritus, Duke University
1952
Harold W. Tribble, Doctor of Laws
President, Wake Forest College
James A. Gray, Doctor of Laws
Civic leader; Chairman, Board of Directors, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Paul Neff Garber, Doctor of Divinity
Former Dean, Duke Divinity School; Methodist Bishop
Edgar W. Knight, Doctor of Letters
Head, Department of Education, University of North Carolina
1951
Liston Pope, Doctor of Divinity
Dean, Yale Divinity School
Julian P. Boyd, Doctor of Letters
Librarian, Princeton University; Editor, Jefferson Papers
Gordon Gray, Doctor of Laws
President, University of North Carolina
1950
William Henry Draper, Jr., Doctor of Laws
Economic advisor to Commander-in-Chief, European Theater; former under Secretary of the Army
James William Fulbright, Doctor of Laws
Senator from Arkansas
Paul Budd Magnuson, Doctor of Science
Chief Medical Director, Veterans Administration
Wendell Holmes Stephenson, Doctor of Letters
Professor of History, Tulane University