The Senior Celebrants

Two 99-year-olds—Frances Pass Addelson ’30, of Brookline, Massachusetts, and George Barner ’29, Ed ’32, L ’33, of Kennebunk, Maine—the oldest...

Two 99-year-olds—Frances Pass Addelson ’30, of Brookline, Massachusetts, and George Barner ’29, Ed ’32, L ’33, of Kennebunk, Maine—the oldest graduates present on Commencement day, were saluted during the afternoon ceremony by HAA president Jonathan L.S. Byrnes. He noted also that 106-year-old Albert H. Gordon ’23, M.B.A. ’25, LL.D. ’77, of New York City, had hoped to come celebrate his eighty-fifth reunion, but was unable to attend.

Photographs by Stu Rosner

George Barner

Photographs by Jim Harrison

Frances Pass Addelson

According to University records, the oldest alumni, apart from Gordon, include: Walter J. Seward, J.D. ’24, 111, of West Orange, New Jersey; Marion Coppelman Epstein ’24, 105, of Boston; M. Louise Macnair ’25, 105, of Cambridge; Halford J. Pope ’25, M.B.A. ’27, 104, of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Edward Gipstein ’27, 103, of New London, Connecticut; Marjorie B. Walden ’26, 102, of Needham, Massachusetts; Rose Depoyan ’26, Ed.M. ’38, 101, of Brockton, Massachusetts, and Edith M. Van Saun ’29, 101, of Sykesville, Maryland.

Related topics

You might also like

Harvard Alumni Win Two 2026 Nobel Prizes

Karl Deisseroth revolutionized neuroscience. Navanethem “Navi” Pillay has adjudicated cases in international courts concerning genocide.

Olympian Juliet Hochman Trains Athletes to Push Their Limits

The Harvard triathlete and coach says she helps normal people to “do extraordinary things.”

Boston Ballet’s Ming Min Hui on Changing Audiences and Timothée Chalamet

The outgoing executive director and Harvard Business School graduate went from dancing The Nutcracker to growing a ballet company.

Most popular

How Philosophy at Harvard Saved Itself

As humanities shrink across higher education, one department is flourishing. Is its success a fluke, or a roadmap?

Crimson Football: Harvard 41, Cornell 29

Erasing an early deficit, the unbeaten Crimson roll to an Ivy win.

Three Harvard Alumni and a Former Postdoc Named MacArthur Fellows

A labor economist, an organic chemist, a physicist, and a memory researcher were honored with 2026 “genius” grants.

Explore More From Current Issue

Collage of three photos of an athlete in a triathlon: one swimming, one cycling, one running, in sports attire.

The Harvard triathlete and coach says she helps normal people to “do extraordinary things.”

Colorful icons representing sleep, fruit, speech, and a mind with a water lily.

Check back soon to take our survey! 

Illuminated hanging sculptures resembling organic forms, casting warm light in a dim space.

Artists Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien turn a colonial symbol from Cambodia inside out.