The first commencement at RPI was held on April 26, 1826. Asa Fitch, class of 1827, attended the ceremony and wrote of his experience in his diary. This ceremony was held in the Old Bank Place in Troy and graduates delivered lecture demonstrations as part of the ceremony, as Fitch recalls in his diary. The early commencement speakers were the current presidents of RPI; Nathan S.S. Beman, John F. Winslow, and James Forsyth. By 1877, RPI alumnus Alfred P. Boller, class of 1861, was the first of many alumni to have the honor of commencement speaker. During periods of war, commencement speakers tend to be admirals, captains, or colonels. With the exception of WWI and the Iraq War. By the end of WWI, Revered Dr. Joseph H. Odell was the commencement speaker in 1918 and 1920. In 1919, RPI did not have a speaker but instead conferred degrees to returning veterans. Prior to 1969, commencement speakers typically had a background in engineering, a role in the US government, or president of their own company. Beginning with Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1969, commencement speakers began including people with unique backgrounds. Science writer Isaac Asimov, environmentalist Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and social historian Alvin Toffler, were among the speakers outside of the engineering community. Since 1970, RPI has hosted a number of unique commencement speakers and in 1978 Dixy Ray Lee was the first woman commencement speaker. Following Lee, other prominent women in American history were honored as speakers as well, including Hilary Rodham Clinton, Regina M. Benjamin, Ginni Rometty, and Admiral Michelle Howard.

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