He never held public office though he was often mentioned for an ambassadorship. He declined feelers for a Senatorial campaign after his retirement in 1932. The honor which he most appreciated was the establishment by several thousand alumni of the Hibben Loan Fund for students in financial straits. A scholarship in Princeton founded by a Yale alumnus also bears his name, as does a street in Princeton and a new mineral discovered by his colleague Alexander H. Phillips. His monument on the campus is the chapel, the nave of which bears his name.