La Universidad Duke ha otorgado los siguientes doctorados honoris causa:^[1]​

Año	Persona	Grado
2015	France Córdova	Doctor of Science
2015	Harold A. Mooney	Doctor of Science
2015	McCoy Tyner	Doctor of Arts
2015	Michael Feinberg	Doctor of Humane Letters
2015	David Levin	Doctor of Humane Letters
2015	Rakesh Jain	Doctor of Science
2015	Renée Fleming	Doctor of Arts
2014	Carolyn R. Bertozzi	Doctor of Science
2014	Erskine B. Bowles	Doctor of Laws
2014	Susan M. Hockfield	Doctor of Humane Letters
2014	W. Delano Meriwether	Doctor of Science
2014	Walter Isaacson	Doctor of Humane Letters
2013	David Sean Ferriero	Doctor of Humane Letters
2013	Henry Louis Gates	Doctor of Humane Letters
2013	Judith A. Jamison	Doctor of Arts
2013	Marguerite Barankitse	Doctor of Humane Letters
2013	Max Dale Cooper	Doctor of Science
2013	Melinda Gates	Doctor of Humane Letters
2013	William Hunt Gross	Doctor of Laws
2012	Darryl Hunt	Doctor of Humane Letters
2012	Emmylou Harris	Doctor of Arts
2012	Fareed Zakaria	Doctor of Humane Letters
2012	James Barksdale	Doctor of Laws
2012	Nancy Brinker	Doctor of Humane Letters
2012	Robert Coleman Richardson	Doctor of Science
2011	Alan C. Page	Doctor of Humane Letters
2011	Eric K. Shinseki	Doctor of Humane Letters
2011	James B. Hunt	Doctor of Laws
2011	John T. Chambers	Doctor of Science
2011	Lisa Randall	Doctor of Science
2011	Rita Dove	Doctor of Literature
2011	Tan Chorh Chuan	Doctor of Science
2010	Alasdair MacIntyre	Doctor of Humane Letters
2010	Joel Klein	Doctor of Humane Letters
2010	John Pendry	Doctor of Science
2010	Muhammad Yunus	Doctor of Humane Letters
2010	Temple Grandin	Doctor of Humane Letters
2009	Indra Nooyi	Doctor of Laws
2009	James Moeser	Doctor of Letters
2009	Joseph Goldstein	Doctor of Science
2009	Mario Molina	Doctor of Science
2009	Michael Brown	Doctor of Science
2009	Murray Perahia	Doctor of Fine Arts
2009	Oprah Winfrey	Doctor of Humane Letters
2009	Robert Redford	Doctor of Fine Arts
2009	Susan Athey	Doctor of Science
2008	Barbara Kingsolver	Doctor of Humane Letters
2008	Helene Gayle	Doctor of Science
2008	James Goodmon	Doctor of Laws
2008	Patricia Wald	Doctor of Laws
2008	Wendell Berry	Doctor of Literature
2007	Anita Jones	Doctor of Science
2007	Florence Wald	Doctor of Humane Letters
2007	Peter Storey	Doctor of Humane Letters
2007	Twyla Tharp	Doctor of Fine Arts
2006	James Wyngaarden	Doctor of Science
2006	Martin Eakes	Doctor of Humane Letters
2006	Nina Totenberg	Doctor of Humane Letters
2006	Steven Chu	Doctor of Science
2005	Freeman A. Hrabowski	Doctor of Letters
2005	John H. Adams	Doctor of Laws
2005	Mary Robinson	Doctor of Humane Letters
2005	Ricardo Lagos	Doctor of Laws
2005	Roald Hoffmann	Doctor of Science
2005	Robin Chandler Duke	Doctor of Humane Letters
2004	Madeleine K. Albright	Doctor of Humane Letters
2004	Oliver Smithies	Doctor of Science
2004	Phillip A. Griffiths	Doctor of Science
2004	Richard J. Goldstone	Doctor of Laws
2003	Charles L. Reinhart	Doctor of Fine Arts
2003	Frank L. Bowman	Doctor of Humane Letters
2003	Judy Chicago	Doctor of Fine Arts
2003	Richard D. Klausner	Doctor of Science
2002	Eleanor Thomas Elliott	Doctor of Humane Letters
2002	John R. Lewis	Doctor of Laws
2002	John Wesley Chandler	Doctor of Laws
2002	Shmuel N. Eisenstadt	Doctor of Humane Letters
2002	Thomas K. Wolfe	Doctor of Literature
2001	Charlayne Hunter-Gault	Doctor of Humane Letters
2001	David R. Gergen	Doctor of Humane Letters
2001	Patrick M. Williams	Doctor of Fine Arts
2000	Andrew Jackson Young	Doctor of Laws
2000	Elizabeth H. Dole	Doctor of Humane Letters
1999	Anthony Drexel Duke	Doctor of Humane Letters
1999	Carolyn Gold Heilbrun	Doctor of Humane Letters
1999	Corinne Boggs "Cokie" Roberts	Doctor of Humane Letters
1999	Emil Constantinescu	Doctor of Science
1999	George B. Autry	Doctor of Laws (póstumo)
1999	James Hustead Semans	Doctor of Humane Letters
1999	Theodore "Sonny" Rollins	Doctor of Arts
1998	Clay Felker	Doctor of Humane Letters
1998	Donald Ervin Knuth	Doctor of Science
1998	George Herbert Walker Bush	Doctor of Laws
1998	John Hope Franklin	Doctor of Humane Letters
1998	Judy Carline Woodruff	Doctor of Humane Letters
1997	Doris Leeper	Doctor of Fine Arts
1997	Jimmy Carter	Doctor of Humane Letters
1997	John Howard Gibbons	Doctor of Science
1997	Norman R.. Augustine	Doctor of Laws
1997	Peter John Gomes	Doctor of Humane Letters
1996	Daniel C. Tosteson	Doctor of Science
1996	Frank Kenan	Doctor of Humane Letters
1996	Jane Alexander	Doctor of Fine Arts
1996	Julius Levonne Chambers	Doctor of Humane Letters
1996	David Williams	Doctor of Laws
1995	Anthony Stephen Fauci	Doctor of Science
1995	Coretta Scott King	Doctor of Humane Letters
1995	James Hadley Billington	Doctor of Literature
1995	John Phillip McGovern	Doctor of Science
1995	Nafis Sadik	Doctor of Humane Letters
1994	George M. Woodwell	Doctor of Science
1994	Josephine Humphreys	Doctor of Literature
1994	LeRoy T. Walker	Doctor of Humane Letters
1994	Paul Hardin III	Doctor of Humane Letters
1993	Bill Bradley	Doctor of Laws
1993	David Alan Hamburg	Doctor of Humane Letters
1993	Juanita Morris Kreps	Doctor of Laws
1993	Sylvia Alice Earle	Doctor of Science
1993	William James Raspberry	Doctor of Humane Letters
1992	A. Kenneth Pye	Doctor of Laws
1992	Elna B. Spaulding	Doctor of Humane Letters
1992	James D. Ebert	Doctor of Science
1992	Marian Wright Edelman	Doctor of Humane Letters
1992	Robert R. Everett	Doctor of Science
1991	Charles D. Watts	Doctor of Science
1991	Eleanor Cutri Smeal	Doctor of Laws
1991	George F. Will	Doctor of Humane Letters
1991	George S. Balandier	Doctor of Humane Letters
1991	Gertrude B. Elion	Doctor of Science
1990	David R. Palmer	Doctor of Humane Letters
1990	Tom Brokaw	Doctor of Humane Letters
1989	David G. Cogan	Doctor of Science
1989	F. Sherwood Rowland	Doctor of Science
1989	Patricia Murphy Derian	Doctor of Humane Letters
1989	Stephen J. Gould	Doctor of Science
1988	Cathleen S. Morawetz	Doctor of Science
1988	Garry B. Trudeau	Doctor of Humane Letters
1988	John Cocke	Doctor of Science
1988	Kenneth B. Clark	Doctor of Humane Letters
1988	Robert Shaw	Doctor of Fine Arts
1987	Eppie Lederer (Ann Landers)	Doctor of Humane Letters
1987	Mary L. Good	Doctor of Science
1987	R. David Thomas	Doctor of Laws
1987	Ted Koppel	Doctor of Humane Letters
1987	Thomas E. Powell	Doctor of Science
1986	Kenneth C. Royall	Doctor of Laws
1986	Lee A. Iacocca	Doctor of Laws
1986	Ralph O. Slatyer	Doctor of Science
1986	Robert M. Lumiansky	Doctor of Literature
1986	Terry Sanford	Doctor of Laws
1985	Carlos DuPre Moseley	Doctor of Humane Letters
1985	Emanuel Azenberg	Doctor of Fine Arts
1985	Martin Cummings	Doctor of Science
1985	Shridath Ramphal	Doctor of Humane Letters
1985	Theodore M. Hesburgh	Doctor of Humane Letters
1984	J. Paul Sticht	Doctor of Laws
1984	Katharine Graham	Doctor of Humane Letters
1984	Mitchell Sviridoff	Doctor of Laws
1984	Mstislav Rostropovich	Doctor of Fine Arts
1983	Bonnie Ethel Cone	Doctor of Humane Letters
1983	Ernest Ludwig Eliel	Doctor of Science
1983	George Thomas Harrell	Doctor of Laws
1983	Helen Grey Edmonds	Doctor of Literature
1983	Mary D.B.T. Semans	Doctor of Laws
1983	Paul Grant Rogers	Doctor of Laws
1983	Paul Taylor	Doctor of Fine Arts
1983	Isaiah Berlin	Doctor of Humane Letters
1983	William Ragsdale Cannon	Doctor of Literature
1982	Donald F. McHenry	Doctor of Humane Letters
1982	Floyd Millard Riddick	Doctor of Humane Letters
1982	Geoffrey Moriaso Ole Maloiy	Doctor of Science
1982	George Herbert Hitchings	Doctor of Science
1982	Hanna Holborn Gray	Doctor of Humane Letters
1982	James Edward Cheek	Doctor of Humane Letters
1981	Clifton Reginald Wharton	Doctor of Laws
1981	Edward Hirsch Levi	Doctor of Laws
1981	Gerald Holton	Doctor of Laws
1981	Gwendolyn Brooks	Doctor of Letters
1981	Harry Eagle	Doctor of Science
1981	Laurence S. Rockefeller	Doctor of Humane Letters
1981	Philip Hauge Abelson	Doctor of Science
1981	Stanley Sebastian Kresge	Doctor of Humane Letters
1981	Steven Muller	Doctor of Laws
1980	Helen Hayes	Doctor of Fine Arts
1980	Joseph M. Bryan	Doctor of Laws
1980	L. Richardson Preyer	Doctor of Humane Letters
1980	Milton Stover Eisenhower	Doctor of Laws
1980	Paul Eliot Green	Doctor of Fine Arts
1979	Benjamin Franklin Swalin	Doctor of Humane Letters
1979	David Farquhar Cavers	Doctor of Laws
1979	Jonathan Evans Rhoads	Doctor of Science
1979	Martha Maxine McMahon Swalin	Doctor of Humane Letters
1979	Paul Oskar Kristellar	Doctor of Literature
1979	Richard Bernard Henney	Doctor of Laws
1979	Samuel DuBois Cook	Doctor of Laws
1978	Charles Frankel	Doctor of Literature
1978	Edward Osborne Wilson	Doctor of Science
1978	Eugene Corbett Patterson	Doctor of Laws
1978	George Richard Herbert	Doctor of Laws
1978	Glenn Theodore Seaborg	Doctor of Laws
1978	John Zachary Young	Doctor of Science
1978	Leonard Solomon Silk	Doctor of Laws
1977	George Frost Kennan	Doctor of Laws
1977	Leslie Carnegie Dowdy	Doctor of Laws
1977	Nelson Ferebee Taylor	Doctor of Laws
1977	Perry Como	Doctor of Humane Letters
1976	Dirk Andries Flentrop	Doctor of Fine Arts
1976	Hildegard Elizabeth Peplau	Doctor of Science
1976	James Ralph Scales	Doctor of Laws
1976	John Franklin Enders	Doctor of Humane Letters
1976	John Joseph Sirica	Doctor of Laws
1976	Joseph Lane Kirkland	Doctor of Laws
1976	Lewis Thomas	Doctor of Humane Letters
1975	Agnes deMille	Doctor of Fine Arts
1975	Alexander Heard	Doctor of Humane Letters
1975	Alfred Johnston Fletcher	Doctor of Humane Letters
1975	Allan H. Gilbert	Doctor of Literature
1975	Benjamin Elijah Mays	Doctor of Humane Letters
1975	Elmer Boyd Staats	Doctor of Laws
1975	Gay Wilson Allen	Doctor of Literature
1975	George Evelyn Hutchinson	Doctor of Letters
1975	Henry E. Rauch	Doctor of Laws
1975	Paul Magnus Gross	Doctor of Science
1975	William Thomas Laprade	Doctor of Literature
1974	Albert Cook Outler	Doctor of Humane Letters
1974	Albert Nathaniel Whiting	Doctor of Laws
1974	Benjamin Everett Jordan	Doctor of Laws (póstumo)
1974	Charles Edward Jordan	Doctor of Laws (póstumo)
1974	Marian Anderson	Doctor of Humane Letters
1974	Pierre Elliott Trudeau	Doctor of Laws
1974	Susie Marshall Sharp	Doctor of Laws
1973	Ellen Winston	Doctor of Humane Letters
1973	John A. D. Cooper	Doctor of Science
1973	John Brooks Fuqua	Doctor of Laws
1973	Jurgen Moltmann	Doctor of Divinity
1973	Robert Ward	Doctor of Fine Arts
1973	Vernon E. Jordan	Doctor of Laws
1972	Kathrine Robinson Everett	Doctor of Laws
1972	Raven Ioor McDavid	Doctor of Literature
1972	Walter Cronkite	Doctor of Letters
1972	William Bevan	Doctor of Laws
1971	Albert Coates	Doctor of Laws
1971	Elizabeth Duncan Koontz	Doctor of Laws
1971	Lewis McAdory Branscomb	Doctor of Science
1971	Lineunt Scott Allen	Doctor of Divinity
1971	Lucius Stacy Weaver	Doctor of Laws
1971	Thomas Grey Wicker	Doctor of Letters
1971	U Thant	Doctor of Humane Letters
1970	Calvin Bryce Hoover	Doctor of Laws
1970	John Hervey Wheeler	Doctor of Laws
1970	John Heysham Gibbon	Doctor of Science
1970	Justus Bier	Doctor of Fine Arts
1970	Margaret Baggett Dolan	Doctor of Laws
1969	Angier Biddle Duke	Doctor of Laws
1969	Asa Timothy Spaulding	Doctor of Laws
1969	Earl Gladstone Hunt	Doctor of Divinity
1969	Jerome Seymour Bruner	Doctor of Humane Letters
1969	Maynard Mack	Doctor of Literature
1969	Rudolf Wittkower	Doctor of Fine Arts
1969	William Martin Fairbank	Doctor of Science
1968	(John) Wallace Carroll	Doctor of Laws
1968	Elisabeth Luce Moore	Doctor of Humane Letters
1968	Helen Brooke Taussig	Doctor of Science
1968	Jonathan Worth Daniels	Doctor of Literature
1968	William Clark Styron	Doctor of Letters
1968	William Thomas Gossett	Doctor of Laws
1967	Charles S. Murphy	Doctor of Laws
1967	Luther H. Hodges	Doctor of Laws
1967	Robert Lee Humber	Doctor of Humanities
1967	William McFerrin Stowe	Doctor of Divinity
1966	Charles H. Townes	Doctor of Science
1966	Earl J. Hamilton	Doctor of Laws
1966	George Watts Hill	Doctor of Laws
1966	James E. Webb	Doctor of Laws
1966	John M. Russell	Doctor of Laws
1966	John Thomas McNeill	Doctor of Humane Letters
1965	Charles A. Cannon	Doctor of Laws
1965	Eleanor L. Dulles	Doctor of Literature
1965	Gordon Norton Ray	Doctor of Literature
1965	Harry L. Dalton	Doctor of Humane Letters
1965	John N. Couch	Doctor of Science
1965	John T. Caldwell	Doctor of Laws
1964	Bunyan Snipes Womble	Doctor of Laws
1964	Edgar Finley Shannon	Doctor of Laws
1964	Germaine Bree	Doctor of Humanities
1964	J. Deryl Hart	Doctor of Laws
1964	James Franck	Doctor of Science (póstumo)
1964	William Freeman Twaddell	Doctor of Literature
1963	A. Merrimon Cuninggim	Doctor of Laws
1963	Carl Joachim Friedrich	Doctor of Laws
1963	Gaylord P. Harnwell	Doctor of Laws
1963	William Brantley Aycock	Doctor of Laws
1962	Aubrey G. Walton	Doctor of Divinity
1962	James G. Leyburn	Doctor of Laws
1962	Mary Elizabeth Switzer	Doctor of Humanities
1962	Norman A. Cocke	Doctor of Laws
1962	Richard H. Shryock	Doctor of Laws
1961	Harold A. Scheraga	Doctor of Science
1961	Whitney North Seymour	Doctor of Laws
1961	Wilburt Cornell Davison	Doctor of Laws
1960	David Grier Martin	Doctor of Laws
1960	Henry W. Kendall	Doctor of Literature
1960	W. Kenneth Goodson	Doctor of Divinity
1959	Benjamin Lee Smith	Doctor of Laws
1959	Edwin M. Gill	Doctor of Laws
1959	Hugh T. Lefler	Doctor of Laws
1959	Nolan B. Harman	Doctor of Divinity
1959	Richard A. Harvill	Doctor of Laws
1958	Archibald L. M. Wiggins	Doctor of Laws
1958	Charles S. Rhyne	Doctor of Laws
1958	James A. Shannon	Doctor of Science
1958	William C. Friday	Doctor of Laws
1957	Algernon B. Reese	Doctor of Laws
1957	George W. Harley	Doctor of Humanities
1957	L. Quincy Mumford	Doctor of Literature
1957	William R. Vanlentiner	Doctor of Laws
1954	Charles F. Carroll	Doctor of Laws
1954	Ralph W. Sockman	Doctor of Letters
1953	George G. Allen	Doctor of Laws
1953	William Hane Wannamaker	Doctor of Laws
1952	Edgar W. Knight	Doctor of Letters
1952	Harold W. Tribble	Doctor of Laws
1952	James A. Gray	Doctor of Laws
1952	Paul Neff Garber	Doctor of Divinity
1951	Gordon Gray	Doctor of Laws
1951	Julian P. Boyd	Doctor of Letters
1951	Liston Pope	Doctor of Divinity
1950	James William Fulbright	Doctor of Laws
1950	Paul Budd Magnuson	Doctor of Science
1950	Wendell Holmes Stephenson	Doctor of Letters
1950	William Henry Draper	Doctor of Laws
1949	Alice Mary Baldwin	Doctor of Laws
1949	George V. Allen	Doctor of Laws
1949	Henry C. Sprinkle	Doctor of Divinity
1949	James Rhyne Killian	Doctor of Laws
1949	Robert H. Jackson	Doctor of Laws
1948	Alfred P. Sloan	Doctor of Science
1948	Eugene Cannon Few	Doctor of Divinity
1948	Owen J. Roberts	Doctor of Laws
1948	Robert Frost	Doctor of Literature
1945	Thomas Parron	Doctor of Science
1943	Charles S. Stephenson	Doctor of Science
1943	Clare Purcell	Doctor of Laws
1943	James Stevens Simmons	Doctor of Science
1943	Thomas A. Morgan	Doctor of Science
1941	Clyde Olin Fisher	Doctor of Laws
1941	Harry C. Smith	Doctor of Divinity
1941	John R. Cunningham	Doctor of Laws
1941	Josiah W. Bailey	Doctor of Laws
1941	Robert M. Lester	Doctor of Laws
1941	William A. Lambeth	Doctor of Divinity
1941	William E. Hocking	Doctor of Laws
1940	Costen J. Harrell	Doctor of Divinity
1940	Hu Shih	Doctor of Laws
1940	John Wesley Hanes	Doctor of Laws
1940	Luther Pfahler Eisenhart	Doctor of Laws
1939	Charles Lee Raper	Doctor of Laws
1939	Oliver Cromwell Carmichael	Doctor of Laws
1939	William Henry Glasson	Doctor of Laws
1938	Charles Holmes Herty	Doctor of Science
1938	Clyde R. Hoey	Doctor of Laws
1938	Ellen Glasgow	Doctor of Laws
1938	James Braxton Craven	Doctor of Divinity
1938	Lewis Hill Weed	Doctor of Science
1938	Norman Vincent Peale	Doctor of Divinity
1938	Ray Stannard Baker	Doctor of Literature
1937	Charles Cassedy Bass	Doctor of Laws
1937	Marion T. Plyler	Doctor of Divinity
1937	Alva W. Plyler	Doctor of Divinity
1937	Robert W. Winston	Doctor of Laws
1936	Charles C. Weaver	Doctor of Divinity
1936	Edwin NcNeill Poteat	Doctor of Divinity
1936	Hardin F. Taylor	Doctor of Science
1936	Henry Nelson Snyder	Doctor of Laws
1936	Jesse Lee Cuninggim	Doctor of Divinity
1936	Robert E. Blackwell	Doctor of Laws
1936	Sao-Ke Alfred Sze	Doctor of Laws
1935	Gerald Ray Jordan	Doctor of Divinity
1935	John Lloyd Newcomb	Doctor of Laws
1935	Martha M. Berry	Doctor of Laws
1935	Robert D.W. Connor	Doctor of Laws
1935	Thomas Campbell Darst	Doctor of Divinity
1934	Benjamin R. Lacy	Doctor of Divinity
1934	Howard Bement	Doctor of Laws
1934	Paul B. Kern	Doctor of Divinity
1933	Homer L. Ferguson	Doctor of Science
1933	Ivan Lee Holt	Doctor of Divinity
1933	John P. Munroe	Doctor of Science
1933	Josiah Stamp	Doctor of Laws
1933	William Louis Poteat	Doctor of Laws
1932	Frank P. Graham	Doctor of Laws
1932	Thurman D. Kitchin	Doctor of Laws
1930	David R. Coker	Doctor of Science
1930	Edwin D. Mouzon	Doctor of Laws
1930	Ray L. Wilbur	Doctor of Laws
1930	Walter L. Lingle	Doctor of Laws
1928	E. Stanley Jones	Doctor of Divinity
1928	William Walter Peele	Doctor of Divinity
1928	Walter A. Stanbury	Doctor of Divinity
1928	Francis P. Gaines	Doctor of Letters
1928	Burton J. Hendrick	Doctor of Laws
1924	Gilbert T. Rowe	Doctor of Letters
1925	Watson Smith Rankin	Doctor of Science
1924	Harry M. North	Doctor of Divinity