Founders Day Speakers
Keynote speakers were introduced at the first Founders Day in 1972 and continued until 1995, when the format was changed to accommodate the installation of President Paul E. Torgersen. Initially, noted speakers provided a highlight to the university awards presented at the event. Because of the growth in the number of university awards, the practice of having a speaker was discontinued in 1996. In 2000, the special event was changed, with university awards moved to the fall and only the William H. Ruffner Medal and Alumni Distinguished Service Awards presented during the Founders Day ceremony. At the same time, speakers were reintroduced to the event. Since 2005, when the university began presenting the Ruffner and service awards in conjunction with spring Commencement, speakers at the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets spring lecture series, known as the Cutchins Distinguished Lecture, have been considered official Founders Day speakers.
| 1972 | John G. Veneman, undersecretary of the U. S. Health, Education, and Welfare Department, read from a speech prepared by HEW Secretary Elliott L. Richardson, who had to cancel his visit because his presence was requested at a Senate hearing |
| 1973 | Marshall Hahn Jr., president of Virginia Tech |
| 1974 | Christopher C. Kraft, class of 1945 and director of NASA’s manned spacecraft center at Houston |
| 1975 | Daniel E. Marvin, director of Virginia’s State Council of Higher Education |
| 1976 | John D. Wilson, vice president for academic affairs at Virginia Tech, formerly president of Wells College |
| 1977 | G. Burke Johnston, C. P. Miles Professor emeritus of English, Virginia Tech |
| 1978 | J. Wade Gilley, Secretary of Education, Commonwealth of Virginia |
| 1979 | T. Marshall Hahn, president emeritus of Virginia Tech |
| 1980 | Laura Jane Harper, dean, College of Home Economics, Virginia Tech |
| 1981 | William E. Lavery, president, Virginia Tech |
| 1982 | T. Marshall Hahn Jr., president emeritus of Virginia Tech and president of the Georgia-Pacific Corporation |
| 1983 | Ernest L. Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching |
| 1984 | John Warner, U.S. Senator from Virginia |
| 1985 | Peter Hackes, NBC news correspondent |
| 1986 | Caspar W. Weinberger, U.S. Secretary of Defense |
| 1987 | Bernard Shaw, Washington anchor for Cable News Network |
| 1988 | G. Burke Johnston, C. P. Miles Professor Emeritus of English |
| 1989 | Kocheril Raman Narayanan, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, Space, Electronics, and Ocean Technology for the Government of India |
| 1990 | Robert M. O’Neil, president of the University of Virginia |
| 1991 | T. Marshall Hahn Jr., chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Georgia-Pacific Corporation |
| 1992 | John T. Casteen III, president of the University of Virginia |
| 1993 | Lt. Gen. Thomas Kelly (U.S. Army, retired), director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Desert Shield and Desert Storm |
| 1994 | Hunter B. Andrews, state Senate majority leader |
| 1995 | Installation of Paul E. Torgersen as president, with remarks on the presidential installation by the Honorable Thomas W. Moss Jr., speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates |
| 1996 | None |
| 1997 | None |
| 1998 | None |
| 1999 | None |
| 2000 | Inauguration of Charles W. Steger Jr. as president, with remarks by David Rozelle, president of the University of Delaware and former Virginia Tech provost, and an inaugural address by Dr. Steger |
| 2001 | Alfred Defago, Swiss ambassador to the United States |
| 2002 | Charles W. Pryor Jr., president and CEO of Westinghouse |
| 2003 | Barbara Pendergrass, Virginia Tech dean of students |
| 2004 | Robert W. Goodlatte, U. S. Congressman |
| 2005 | Mary Matalin and James Carville, political strategists |
| 2006 | George Stephanopoulos, political commentator |
| 2007 | Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, author, and TV commentator |
| 2008 | Bob Schieffer, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and anchor of “Face the Nation.” |
| 2009 | Michael Beschloss, presidential historian |
| 2010 | Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist and best-selling author |
| 2011 | Bill Bradley, former U.S. senator and presidential candidate |
| 2012 | Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Secretary |
| 2013 | Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey governor |
| 2014 | William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, host of the nationally syndicated “Morning in America” radio show, and author |
| 2015 | Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author |
| 2016 | David Brooks, New York Times columnist and author |
| 2017 | Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University, bestselling author, and presidential historian for CNN |