This list of University of Florida honorary degree recipients includes notable persons who have been recognized by the University of Florida for outstanding achievements in their fields that reflect the ideals and uphold the purposes of the university, and to whom the university faculty has voted to award honorary degrees in recognition of such attainments. Often, but not always, the honorary degree recipients have been alumni of the university, or have had ties to either the university or the state of Florida.

The University of Florida awarded its first honorary degree in 1909 to Andrew Sledd, in recognition of his four years of service as the founding president of the modern University of Florida. The first woman to whom the university awarded an honorary degree was Florida author and novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in 1941.

Honorary degree recipients, 1909–25

Recipient Year/degree Notability 1909 D.D. Andrew W. Sledd became the first president of the modern University of Florida following the consolidation of Florida's state institutions of higher education by the Buckman Act in 1905, and served from 1905 to 1909. He was an ordained Methodist minister and a noted Greek, Latin and biblical scholar. Sledd subsequently served as the president of Southern University (1910–14), and the first Professor of New Testament Literature at Emory University's Candler School of Theology (1914–39).Albert E. Barnett, Andrew Sledd: His Life and Work, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (1956). Thomas M. Shackleford 1910 LL.D. Thomas M. Shackleford was an associate justice of the Florida Supreme Court for fifteen years from 1902 to 1917. George M. Ward 1919 LL.D. George Morgan Ward was the acting president of Rollins College, and a member of its board of trustees. Peter H. Rolfs 1920 D.Sc. Peter Henry Rolfs was the dean of the University of Florida College of Agriculture and the director of its Experiment Station. Rolfs later served as the director of a state college in Brazil. 1921 LL.D. P.K. Yonge was the president of Southern States Lumber Company of Pensacola. In his role as a long-time member and chairman of the Florida Board of Control (1910–17 and 1922–32), Yonge was responsible for guiding the consolidation, early growth and evolution of the University of Florida. 1923 LL.D. Nathan P. Bryan was the chairman of the Florida Board of Control, a U.S. Senator from Florida from 1911 to 1917, and a U.S. District Court judge in New Orleans. As chairman of the Board of Control, Bryan helped guide the consolidation and early growth of the University of the State of Florida. 1923 LL.D. William Jennings Bryan was a prominent statesman, lawyer, Presbyterian churchman and lecturer. Bryan was a two-term U.S. Representative from Nebraska, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. President in 1896, 1900 and 1908, and the first U.S. Secretary of State in Woodrow Wilson's administration from 1913 to 1915. As a lawyer and special prosecutor, he also represented the State of Tennessee in the Scopes Trial in 1925. Bryan was a personal friend of university president Albert A. Murphree, and as a supporter of the university, he chaired the campaign to raise funds for the construction of the Florida Union.

Honorary degree recipients, 1926–50

Recipient Year/degree Notability Roger W. Babson 1927 LL.D. Roger W. Babson was a prominent statistician and economist. Helped further interests of the state. Orestes Ferrara 1930 LL.D. Orestes Ferrara was Cuba's ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the United States from 1926 to 1930. Doyle E. Carlton 1933 D.C.L. Doyle E. Carlton was the Governor of Florida from 1929 to 1930, and a prominent attorney in Tampa. 1933 LL.D. Duncan U. Fletcher was a U.S. Senator from Florida from 1908 to 1936. 1935 D.C.L. Scott Loftin was a prominent Florida attorney who was the fifty-eighth president of the American Bar Association, and served as the chairman of the University Endowment Corporation of the University of Florida. 1937 D.Sc. Charles Herty was a noted chemist who developed processes for using pine pulp in paper manufacture. Edward Conradi 1939 LL.D. Edward Conradi was the principal of the Normal and Industrial School of St. Petersburg (1905–09), dean of the Florida State College for Women (1909), and then its president for thirty-two years (1909–41). 1939 LL.D. David Fairchild was an eminent botanist, lecturer and author. 1941 L.H.D. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was a well-known novelist, author of The Yearling, and winner of the O. Henry Memorial Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. She often wrote on Florida-related topics. Rawlings was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from the University of Florida. Raymond Robins 1941 LL.D. Raymond Robins was a social and civic leader, World War I U.S. Army officer, lecturer and world traveler. Degree conferred at his home in sanctuary at Chinsegut Hill, Florida, which he gave to the U.S. government in June 1941. His was the first University of Florida honorary degree conferred off campus. 1942 LL.D. Albert H. Blanding was a U.S. Army brigadier general in France from 1918 to 1919, and was later the chief of the U.S. National Guard Bureau from 1936 to 1940. He was also a member of the Florida Board of Control 1922 to 1936. Blanding graduated from Florida Agricultural College with a Bachelor of Science degree (B.S.) in 1894. Thomas Barbour 1944 D.Sc. Thomas Barbour was a naturalist, teacher, author, world traveler, and director of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. He had an interest in Florida's wildlife and natural history, and presented the University of Florida with the famous terrestrial Miocene vertebrate locality in Gilchrist County, Florida. James Melton 1945 Mus.D. James Melton was a prominent actor, artist and singer, and frequently appeared with the Metropolitan Opera Association. Melton attended the University of Florida from 1921 to 1923. James B. Whitfield 1945 LL.D. James Bryan Whitfield was the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, serving on the court for thirty-nine years—the longest tenure in the history of the court.Florida Supreme Court, Supreme Court Portrait Gallery, Justice James B. Whitfield. Retrieved April 15, 2010. The honorary degree was conferred in Tallahassee.University of Florida, Honorary Degree Recipients . Retrieved April 15, 2010. 1946 LL.D. James Van Fleet was a 1915 West Point graduate, a University of Florida professor of military science, and the head coach of the Florida Gators football team from 1923 to 1924. He served as a commissioned officer in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. During World War II, Van Fleet attained the rank of major general, and commanded a corps of the U.S. Third Army under General George S. Patton. In the Korean War, he replaced General Matthew Ridgway as the commander of all United States and United Nations forces.Paul F. Braim, Will to Win: The Life of General James A. Van Fleet, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland (2001). William K. Jackson 1946 LL.D. William K. Jackson was the prosecuting attorney and U.S. Attorney for the Panama Canal Zone, and later served as the president of U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Jackson graduated from the University of Florida at Lake City with a bachelor of science degree (B.S.) in 1904. Colgate W. Darden Jr. 1948 LL.D. Colgate W. Darden Jr. was the governor of Virginia, the chancellor of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the president of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. George D. Stoddard 1948 LL.D. George D. Stoddard was an author, educator, administrator, a former president of the State University of New York, the then-current president of the University of Illinois, and a member of U.S. President Harry S. Truman's Commission on Higher Education. Owen D. Young 1948 LL.D. Owen D. Young was a lawyer, banker, corporate director, economist and humanitarian. Young was the recipient of honorary degrees from twenty-four different colleges and universities. 1949 L.H.D. Alben Barkley represented Kentucky in the House of Representatives (1927–33) and the U.S. Senate (1933–49, 1955–56), and served as the U.S. Vice President under U.S. President Harry S. Truman (1949–53). Wilson Popenoe 1950 D.Sc. Wilson Popenoe was a scholar, horticulturist, and ambassador of good will from the United States to Latin America for nearly forty years. Popenoe served as the director of Escuela Agricola Panamericana at Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Emsterio Santiago Santovenia 1950 LL.D. Emsterio Santiago Santovenia was a Cuban lawyer, writer, historian and statesman. Santovenia served as the foreign minister of Cuba.

Honorary degree recipients, 1951–75