Articles about Ted Kennedy from Harvard Magazine's archives

Kennedy debated Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger ’38 at a special event for the Kennedy School in 1986.

Senator Kennedy acknowledges his audience in Sanders Theatre last December, when he received an honorary degree.

Senator Kennedy acknowledges his audience in Sanders Theatre last December, when he received an honorary degree. | Jon Chase/Harvard News Office

In memory of Senator Edward M. Kennedy ’54, LL.D. ’08, Harvard Magazine offers a glimpse of the man in action, debating then Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger ’38, J.D. ’41, in Washington, D.C., in 1986 as one of several special events marking the fifteenth anniversary of the Harvard Kennedy School. (According to Harvard president Derek Bok, who moderated the debate, both speakers were “shy, inarticulate, somewhat ill-at-ease, and not too well informed” when they entered Harvard, but “When they got their diplomas, they were supremely self-possessed and equipped with formidable forensic skills.”) Michael J. Abramowitz ’85 filed the report.

Read Harvard Magazine’s coverage of the honorary-degree ceremony for Senator Kennedy in December 2008

Read President Faust’s statement on Senator Kennedy’s death

Most popular

The University will compensate families of those whose remains were sold and establish a scholarship to honor anatomical donors.

Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts teaches the value of immersive attention

Teaching students the value of deceleration and immersive attention

Harvard’s Sendhil Mullainathan on behavior and poverty

A behavioral economist’s fresh perspectives on poverty

Explore More From Current Issue

Three hands hold smartphones displaying social media profiles with likes and hearts.

Tell us about how social media impacts your daily life.

Three young women posed side by side against red background.

The 2026-2027 Ledecky and Summer Undergraduate Fellows

A flooded office scene with computers, a woman working, and a pink sunset backdrop.

A College student’s attempt to recapture the romanticism of the workplace.