Listed below are recipients from 1970 to 1979.
1979
David Farquhar Cavers, Doctor of Laws
Professor, Harvard Law School
Samuel DuBois Cook, Doctor of Laws
President, Dillard University
Richard Bernard Henney, Doctor of Laws
Executive Director, The Duke Endowment
Paul Oskar Kristellar, Doctor of Literature
Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
Jonathan Evans Rhoads, Doctor of Science
Surgeon, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Benjamin Franklin Swalin, Doctor of Humane Letters
Former Director, North Carolina Symphony Orchestra
Martha Maxine McMahon Swalin, Doctor of Humane Letters
Former Manager, North Carolina Symphony Orchestra
1978
Charles Frankel, Doctor of Literature
Professor, Columbia University; President, National Humanities Center
George Richard Herbert, Doctor of Laws
President, Research Triangle Institute
Eugene Corbett Patterson, Doctor of Laws
Editor, St. Petersburg Times
Glenn Theodore Seaborg, Doctor of Laws
Former Head, Atomic Energy Commission
Leonard Solomon Silk, Doctor of Laws
Member of the editorial board of The New York Times
Edward Osborne Wilson, Doctor of Science
Professor of Zoology, Harvard University
John Zachary Young, Doctor of Science
Biologist and researcher in neurophysiology
1977
Nelson Ferebee Taylor, Doctor of Laws
Chancellor,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Perry Como, Doctor of Humane Letters
Entertainer
Leslie Carnegie Dowdy, Doctor of Laws
Chancellor of North Carolina A&T University
George Frost Kennan, Doctor of Laws
Diplomat; writer
1976
John Franklin Enders, Doctor of Humane Letters
Nobel Prize winning virologist and microbiologist
Dirk Andries Flentrop, Doctor of Fine Arts
Master organ builder
Joseph Lane Kirkland, Doctor of Laws
American labor leader
Hildegard Elizabeth Peplau, Doctor of Science
Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University; developer of psychiatric nursing
James Ralph Scales, Doctor of Laws
President of Wake Forest University
John Joseph Sirica, Doctor of Laws
Judge, District of Columbia
Lewis Thomas, Doctor of Humane Letters
President of the Sloan-Kettering Institute; etymologist; essayist
1975
Gay Wilson Allen, Doctor of Literature
Professor of English literature at New York University; authority on American poetry
Agnes deMille, Doctor of Fine Arts
Tony Award winning choreographer
Alfred Johnston Fletcher, Doctor of Humane Letters
Radio and television executive; patron of the arts
Allan H. Gilbert, Doctor of Literature
Professor emeritus of English, Duke University
Paul Magnus Gross, Doctor of Science
William Howell Pegram professor emeritus of chemistry, Duke University
Alexander Heard, Doctor of Humane Letters
Chancellor of Vanderbilt University
George Evelyn Hutchinson, Doctor of Letters
Sterling Professor of Zoology, emeritus, at Yale University; founder of modern ecology
William Thomas Laprade, Doctor of Literature
Professor emeritus of history, Trinity College / Duke University
Benjamin Elijah Mays, Doctor of Humane Letters
Retired president of Morehouse College
Henry E. Rauch, Doctor of Laws
Former director and chairman of the board of Burlington Industries; Trustee emeritus, Duke University
Elmer Boyd Staats, Doctor of Laws
Comptroller General of the United States
1974
Marian Anderson, Doctor of Humane Letters
Leading contralto; early champion of rights for blacks
Albert Cook Outler, Doctor of Humane Letters
Professor of Theology at Southern Methodist University
Charles Edward Jordan, Doctor of Laws (posthumous)
Vice President Emeritus of Duke University
Benjamin Everett Jordan, Doctor of Laws (posthumous)
United States Senator; Trustee Emeritus of Duke University
Susie Marshall Sharp, Doctor of Laws
First woman to become a Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court
Albert Nathaniel Whiting, Doctor of Laws
President of North Carolina Central University
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Doctor of Laws
Prime Minister of Canada
1973
John A.D. Cooper, Doctor of Science
President of the Association of American Medical Colleges
John Brooks Fuqua, Doctor of Laws
Founder and Chief Executive of Fuqua Industries; former state senator of Georgia
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Doctor of Laws
Executive Director of National Urban League; formerly Executive Director of the United Negro College Fund and Director of the Voter Education Project of the Southen Regional Council
Jurgen Moltmann, Doctor of Divinity
Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Tubingen, Germany
Robert Ward, Doctor of Fine Arts
President of North Carolina School of the Arts; President of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation; composer
Ellen Winston, Doctor of Humane Letters
Former United States Commissioner of Welfare; former Commissioner of Public Welfare of the State of North Carolina
1972
William Bevan, Doctor of Laws
Psychologist; higher education administrator; Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Walter Cronkite, Doctor of Letters
Radio and television news analyst
Kathrine Robinson Everett, Doctor of Laws
Attorney; first woman to argue a case before the North Carolina Supreme Court; City Councilman; civic leader
Raven Ioor McDavid, Jr., Doctor of Literature
Professor of English at the University of Chicago
1971
Lineunt Scott Allen, Doctor of Divinity
Bishop of Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church in Tennessee; first black to be elected head of a predominantly white Methodist Conference
Lewis McAdory Branscomb, Doctor of Science
Director of National Bureau of Standards
Albert Coates, Doctor of Laws
Director Emeritus of the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill
Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, Doctor of Laws
Director of Women's Bureau, Wage and Labor Standards, Department of Labor; former President of the National Education Association
U Thant, Doctor of Humane Letters
Secretary General of the United Nations
Lucius Stacy Weaver, Doctor of Laws
President of Methodist College; former Superintendent of Durham City Schools
Thomas Grey Wicker, Doctor of Letters
Associate Editor, The New York Times
1970
Justus Bier, Doctor of Fine Arts
Director of the North Carolina Museum of Art
Margaret Baggett Dolan, Doctor of Laws
Head of Department of Public Health Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; former President of the American Nurses' Association
John Heysham Gibbon, Jr., Doctor of Science
Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College, University of Pennsylvania; developer of the heart-lung pump oxygenator
Calvin Bryce Hoover, Doctor of Laws
Professor Emeritus of Economics at Duke University; advisor to presidents of the United States
John Hervey Wheeler, Doctor of Laws
President of Mechanics and Farmers Bank, Durham; outstanding civic leader