The Honorable John Kerry, the 68th U.S. Secretary of State, will deliver the 57th annual Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture on the evening of April 9 in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk, which will focus on geopolitics and sustainability, will be free and open to the public.
The Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture, which recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves in the realm of public service, is named for the Hon. Edward F. Hanify, class of 1904, a prominent Massachusetts jurist who was an active Holy Cross alumnus, and Weston Howland, who endowed the lecture in Judge Hanify’s memory. Howland's admiration and respect for Judge Hanify, his warm affection for the Hanify family and his faith in the purposes and objectives of the College of the Holy Cross led him to establish the annual Hanify Memorial Lecture.
John Kerry served as Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017, guiding the department’s strategy on nuclear nonproliferation, combating radical extremism, and the threat of climate change. His tenure was marked by the successful negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris Climate Agreement.
From 1985 to 2013, he served as a U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts, and was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2009 to 2013. Secretary Kerry served in the U.S. Navy, completing two combat tours of duty in Vietnam for which he received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Combat V, and three Purple Hearts.
The Democratic Party’s nominee for President of the United States in 2004, Secretary Kerry was sworn in as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate on January 20, 2021, and on May 3, 2024, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his lifelong commitment to public service.
Secretary Kerry received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his law degree from Boston College Law School.
In keeping with the traditional practice of the Hanify-Howland lecture series, Secretary Kerry will also conduct a seminar on campus prior to the lecture, which will allow students to interact with the speaker one-on-one. The speaker is nominated annually by a committee of Holy Cross students.
Since 1965, the Hanify-Howland lecture series has brought a host of distinguished speakers to Holy Cross, including: Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones; astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson; Clarence Thomas ’71, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; investigative journalist Bob Woodward; Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the bestselling books “Freakonomics” (Harper, 2009) and “Superfreakonomics” (Harper, 2011); award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien; and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.
