Richard M. Daley

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley will address graduates, parents and guests at Northwestern University’s 150th annual Commencement exercises.
 
Daley will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at the June 20 ceremony in Ryan Field on the University’s Evanston campus.

“We are pleased to have Mayor Daley as our commencement speaker. He has served the City of Chicago with great distinction,” said University President Henry S. Bienen. “He has earned a national reputation as the nation’s top urban executive for implementing programs that address the challenges facing Chicago and other American cities.”

Daley was elected Mayor on April 4, 1989, to complete the term of the late Harold Washington, and was re-elected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 by overwhelming margins. Prior to that he served in the Illinois Senate from 1972 to 1980 and was elected State's Attorney of Cook County in 1980 and re-elected in 1984 and 1988.

Under Daley’s leadership, Chicago has improved its public schools, created a community policing program, focused on delivery of basic services, opened Millennium Park, renovated Navy Pier and Soldier Field, expanded McCormick Place, invested more than $11 billion in capital improvements and more than $3 billion in more affordable housing and rebuilding public housing, and held city property taxes far below the rate of inflation.

Daley, who headed the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1996, has been named Municipal Leader of the Year by American City and County magazine; a Public Official of the Year by Governing magazine; and Politician of the Year by the Library Journal. He has received the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official from the American Institute for Public Service and numerous other awards.