Four awarded Harvard Medal for exceptional service

A veritas shield hangs above the entrance to Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.

File photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer

April 30, 2025 7 min read

To be honored on June 6 marking Alumni Day

Part of the Commencement 2025 series

A collection of features and profiles covering Harvard University’s 374th Commencement.

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has announced that Kathy Delaney-Smith, Paul J. Finnegan ’75, M.B.A. ’82, Carolyn Hughes ’54, and David Johnston ’63 will receive the 2025 Harvard Medal.

First awarded in 1981, the Harvard Medal recognizes extraordinary service to the University in areas that include leadership, fundraising, teaching, innovation, administration, and volunteerism. Alumni, former faculty and staff, and members of organizations affiliated with the University are eligible for consideration. The medals will be presented to recipients on Harvard Alumni Day on June 6.

Photo by Cheryl Clegg

Kathy Delaney-Smith

The all-time winningest coach of any sport — men’s or women’s — in Ivy League history and a trailblazer for gender equity, Kathy Delaney-Smith put Harvard basketball on the map and expanded its profile both nationally and internationally.

With 630 career victories, Delaney-Smith led Harvard Women’s Basketball to 11 Ivy League titles and 16 postseason appearances during her 40 seasons with the Crimson — the second-longest coaching tenure among NCAA Division 1 coaches. In honor of her illustrious career, the women’s coaching position was renamed the Kathy Delaney-Smith Head Coach for Harvard Women’s Basketball upon her retirement.

The first woman named to the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, Delaney-Smith has been honored for both her coaching abilities and her advocacy for gender equity in sports.

Her strong but caring coaching style was defined by her “act as if” mantra, which encouraged team members to carry themselves with the confidence of already having achieved their goals. She employed visualization, mindfulness, and sports psychology decades before they became commonplace, and throughout her long career has guided players through difficult experiences off the court. At the request of basketball alumnae, she wrote the book “Grit and Wit: Empowering Lives and Leaders,” published earlier this year.

Delaney-Smith came to Harvard in 1982 after compiling a 204–31 record at Westwood (Massachusetts) High School, with six undefeated regular seasons and one state title. During her tenure at Westwood, she worked to ensure that the girls’ team had sufficient resources. She also coached USA Women’s Basketball three times, including the team that won gold at the World University Games in Turkey in 2005.

A cancer survivor, Delaney-Smith has dedicated much of her time to helping the American Cancer Society and spreading the word of early detection, for which she received the Gilda Radner Award.

Paul J. Finnegan

Paul Finnegan has been a devoted and dynamic champion of Harvard for over 40 years, lending his expertise and steady voice to top leadership roles, including Harvard Corporation member, University treasurer, Harvard Overseer, chair of the Harvard Management Company, and HAA president. Guided by his passion for education and love for his alma mater, Finnegan has worked tirelessly to strengthen the University’s financial health, governance, and educational mission.

Finnegan was a member of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s senior governing board, for 12 years. From 2014 to 2023, he served as University treasurer, where his financial acumen and deep institutional knowledge informed the work of the University’s financial administration and guided major changes at Harvard Management Company, which he chaired from 2015 to 2024.

Finnegan was also a driving force behind The Harvard Campaign, planning and leading fundraising efforts as executive committee co-chair to raise a remarkable $9.6 billion — making it the most successful fundraising campaign in the history of higher education when it concluded in 2017.

A collegial leader admired for his down-to-earth nature and ability to see opportunities within challenges, Finnegan served from 2008 to 2012 as an elected member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, where he chaired the committee on finance, administration, and management. As HAA president from 2006 to 2007, he enhanced alumni communications systems and expanded global outreach.

Through the decades Finnegan has been closely involved with several Harvard Schools, serving on Harvard Business School’s Board of Dean’s Advisors, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Leadership Council, as honorary co-chair of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s campaign, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Dean’s Council, where he spurred meaningful improvements to the undergraduate experience.

A member of the Committee on University Resources, Finnegan was chair of the HBS Fund and of the College Class of 1975 reunion committee. He is a longtime supporter of Teach for America.

Rocco Chilelli/Camelot Photography Studios LLC

Carolyn Hughes

Motivated by a passion for education and a commitment to helping future generations of talented students attend Harvard, Carolyn Hughes has been a loyal and celebrated Harvard volunteer and ambassador for nearly 50 years, interviewing countless high school students and engaging alumni through her leadership of the Harvard Club of Long Island.

Hughes grew up in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, the daughter of a prison guard and a homemaker. Though she had not planned to attend college, an eighth-grade teacher insisted she take the academic program and be prepared. Four years later she was admitted to Radcliffe and given partial funding through her high school. Research work on the melting icebergs in the Arctic Ocean paid for the rest. After Radcliffe, she moved to New York and taught herself computer science and systems design, joining the first cohort of women in the field.

Never forgetting the tremendous opportunities Radcliffe provided, Hughes began volunteering in the late 1960s, interviewing college applicants as a member of the Radcliffe Club of Long Island — before it eventually merged with Harvard — and personally visiting 120 of the area’s high schools. In the five decades since, Hughes has served as an HAA director for Clubs and SIGs, an elected director of the HAA, and chair of the National Schools and Scholarship Committee within the Harvard College Admissions Office.

With unwavering dedication, she has held nearly every leadership position in the Harvard Club of Long Island, including president, helping to develop robust programming and outreach. As chair of the Long Island Schools Committee, her role expanded to training Harvard interviewers and organizing guidance counselor programs. She now serves as co-chair emerita of the Club’s Schools and Scholarship Committee.

Hughes has received numerous commendations, including the HAA Award in 1990, the Hiram S. Hunn Award in 2002, and the HAA Clubs Award in 2020.

Credit: Sgt. Ronald Duchesne, Rideau Hall, OSGG

David Johnston

The 28th governor general of Canada, a former university president, and a professor of law for more than four decades, David Johnston has dedicated his life in service to his country, to academia, and to Harvard — where he brought his strength as a consensus-builder and commitment to excellence to a variety of roles, including president of the University’s Board of Overseers.

Growing up in a mining town outside Sudbury, Ontario, Johnston quickly learned that an education could open many doors. He was first approached by Harvard at age 14 on the advice of an alumnus who had heard he was a promising scholar-athlete. Johnston enrolled in the College in 1959 on a scholarship, excelling in his studies while also becoming a two-time All-American ice hockey player. He graduated magna cum laude and was later named to the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame.

Dedicated to ensuring talented students from all backgrounds have access to the same opportunities that Harvard afforded him, Johnston has been a steadfast volunteer, serving on his class reunion and gift committees for decades, as an HAA elected director, and on several Overseers visiting committees — including athletics; arts and humanities; finance, administration, and management; and information technology.

Elected to the Board of Overseers in 1992, Johnston was named chair in 1997 — the first non-U.S. citizen to hold the position. In recognition of his service to the University, the Harvard Club of Ottawa established the David Johnston Financial Aid Fund for Harvard, which supports students from Canada.

Johnston was Canada’s governor general from 2010 to 2017. He also served as dean of the faculty of law at the University of Western Ontario, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, and president of the University of Waterloo.

Married 61 years, Johnston and wife, Sharon, have five daughters, all in public service, and 14 grandchildren.