Walter E. Massey '58 Ph.D. received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa from New York University during the Spring 2025 commencement exercises. "Dr. Massey is an esteemed physicist and pathbreaking educator. He is a senior advisor to the president at the University of Chicago and chairman of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, where he is leveraging extraordinary expertise and orchestrating an international consortium to build Earth’s most powerful telescope. A former director of the National Science Foundation, he is also president emeritus of Morehouse College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago." - NYU.edu
Dr. Massey is the only individual to have served as both President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and as Chair of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD). Additionally, Massey is the only individual to have received both the Enrico Fermi Award for Science and Technology from the Chicago Historical Society and the Public Humanities Award from Illinois Humanities. He is an elected member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
As president of Morehouse (1995-2007), Dr. Massey created a vision that would take the college into the new century, which involved reinvigorating its campus, refreshing its core curriculum, and reigniting its fundraising efforts.
In addition to his work as a scientist, college president, and leader in national and international science policy, Dr. Massey has served on the boards of several major multinational corporations, including McDonald's, where he remains a director, and, previously, Bank of America, where he rose to chairman, BP, Tribune Company, Motorola, First National Bank of Chicago, Continental Materials, Amoco, Research-Cottrell, and Analytic Services.
In 2009, he headed Bank of America, as its chairman of the board.
He has also served on the boards of numerous philanthropic organizations and foundations in the civic, social, cultural, and educational spaces, including the Mellon Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the MacArthur Foundation, the Rand Corporation, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and many others.