Notables included Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, British Ambassador David Manning, CBS’s Bob Schieffer, PBS’s Jim Lehrer, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, GOP political adviser Mary Matalin, lawyer Bob Barnett, The Carlyle Group’s David Rubenstein, National Economic Council Director Al Hubbard, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (sporting a walking cast on one leg following an injury suffered during a basketball game), The Boston Globe’s Thomas Oliphant, the Aspen Institute’s Walter Isaacson, The New York Times’ Steve Weisman and Cambridge Energy Research Chairman Dan Yergin.

And proving the smooth continuity of the Federal Reserve, current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, along with his wife, Anna, stopped by to honor his predecessor.