This is an alphabetized, partial list of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, grouped by the aspect of life in which they are/were renowned. Unless otherwise noted, the names are listed as they were given in the official announcement of the award (e.g. President Jimmy Carter, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche) which may not match the recipient's highest office or their usual title. The Presidential Medal of Freedom

Presidential Medal of Freedom

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...

 is awarded by the President of the United States

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 "for especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors"; it is awarded to individuals selected by the President or recommended to him by the Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board

Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board

The Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board is a board created for recommending civilians for awards from the U.S. Federal government for distinguished service. It was Originally established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 27, 1957 by Executive Order 10717 to recommend to the...

. The only exception to the rule that the sitting president chooses those to be honored was that the first recipients were selected by President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 before his assassination and formally awarded by his successor in office, Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

. President Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 has awarded 31 Medals as of February 15, 2011; President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 awarded 81 Medals; and President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 awarded 88 Medals.

Three persons, Ellsworth Bunker

Ellsworth Bunker

Ellsworth F. Bunker was an American businessman and diplomat...

, John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...

, and Colin Powell

Colin Powell

Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...

, are two-time recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Ellsworth Bunker was given both of his awards with Distinction.

NOTE: This list does not include those awarded the similarly named but very distinct Medal of Freedom, an antecedent award issued prior to 1963.

Architecture

Nomination	Date	Note
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....	December 6, 1963
Buckminster Fuller Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....	1983
I.M. Pei	1993

Art

Nomination	Date	Note
Andrew Wyeth Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century....	1963
Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....	1964
Alexander Calder Alexander Calder Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...	January 10, 1977	posthumous award
Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...	January 10, 1977
Norman Rockwell Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...	January 10, 1977	Rockwell's son, Jarvis, accepted the award
Roger L. Stevens Roger L. Stevens Roger Lacey Stevens was an American theatrical producer, arts administrator, and a real estate executive. He is the founding Chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts , and National Endowment for the Arts .Born in Detroit, Michigan, Stevens was educated at The Choate School in...	1988
Jasper Johns Jasper Johns Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...	2011

Dance

Nomination	Date	Note
Martha Graham Martha Graham Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...	October 14, 1976	Awarded With Distinction
Lucia Chase Lucia Chase Lucia Chase was an American dancer, actress, ballet director and also the co-founder of the American Ballet Theatre.- Career :...	1980
George Balanchine George Balanchine George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...	1983
Lincoln Kirstein Lincoln Kirstein Lincoln Edward Kirstein was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, and cultural figure in New York City...	March 26, 1984
Chita Rivera Chita Rivera Chita Rivera is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award...	August 12, 2009

Film

Nomination	Date	Note
Lucille Ball Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...	July 7, 1989	posthumous award
James Cagney James Cagney James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...	March 26, 1984
Doris Day Doris Day Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...	June 23, 2004
Walt Disney Walt Disney Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...	September 14, 1964	Described as "Mr. Walter Disney"
Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...	(1981)
Lynn Fontanne Lynn Fontanne Lynn Fontanne was a British actress and major stage star in the United States for over 40 years. She teamed with her husband Alfred Lunt.She lived in the United States for more than 60 years but never relinquished her British citizenship. Lunt and Fontanne shared a special Tony Award in 1970...	September 14, 1964
John Ford	(1973)
Samuel Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...	(1971)
Helen Hayes Helen Hayes Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...	(1986)
Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...	(1992)
Charlton Heston Charlton Heston Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...	July 23, 2003
Bob Hope Bob Hope Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...	(1969)
Danny Kaye Danny Kaye Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...	1987	posthumous award
Alfred Lunt Alfred Lunt Alfred Lunt was an American stage director and actor, often identified for a long-time professional partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne...	September 14, 1964
Rita Moreno Rita Moreno Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....	June 23, 2004
Gregory Peck Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...	(1969)
Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...	August 12, 2009
Martha Raye Martha Raye Martha Raye was an American comic actress and standards singer who performed in movies, and later on television....	November 2, 1993
James Stewart James Stewart (actor) James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...	(1985)
Lew Wasserman Lew Wasserman Lewis Robert "Lew" Wasserman was an American talent agent and studio executive, sometimes credited with creating and later taking apart the studio system in a career spanning more than six decades...	September 29, 1995
John Wayne John Wayne Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...	June 9, 1980	posthumous award

Literature

Nomination	Date	Note
Maya Angelou Maya Angelou Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...	(2011)
Jacques Barzun Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun is a French-born American historian of ideas and culture. He has written on a wide range of topics, but is perhaps best known as a philosopher of education, his Teacher in America being a strong influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United...	(2003)
James Burnham James Burnham James Burnham was an American popular political theorist, best known for his influential work The Managerial Revolution, published in 1941. Burnham was a radical activist in the 1930s and an important factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement. In later years he left Marxism and produced...	(1983)
J. Frank Dobie J. Frank Dobie James Frank Dobie was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range...	(1964)
T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...	(1964)
Ralph Ellison Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...	(1969)
Eric Hoffer Eric Hoffer Eric Hoffer was an American social writer. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983...	(1982)
Louis L'Amour Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American author. His books consisted primarily of Western fiction novels , however he also wrote historical fiction , science fiction , nonfiction , as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into movies...	March 26, 1984
Harper Lee Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama...	(2007)
Archibald MacLeish Archibald MacLeish Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer, and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the Modernist school of poetry. He received three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.-Early years:...	January 10, 1977	Roderick MacLeish, Archibald's nephew, accepted the award
James A. Michener James A. Michener James Albert Michener was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating historical facts into the stories...	January 10, 1977	Named as James Albert Michener on the award citation
Carl Sandburg Carl Sandburg Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...	(1964)
John Steinbeck John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...	(1964)
DeWitt Wallace DeWitt Wallace DeWitt Wallace , also known as William Roy was a United States magazine publisher. He co-founded Reader's Digest with his wife Lila Wallace and published the first issue in 1922.Born in St...	(1972)
Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...	(1980)
Eudora Welty Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...	(1980)
E.B. White	(1963)
Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...	(1992)
Thornton Wilder Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...	(1963)
Tennessee Williams Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...	(1980)
Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...	(1963)
Albert Wohlstetter Albert Wohlstetter Albert Wohlstetter was an influential and controversial nuclear strategist during the Cold War. He was major intellectual force behind efforts to deter nuclear war and avoid the further spread of nuclear weapons to more nations...	(1985)

Music

Nomination	Date	Note
Marian Anderson Marian Anderson Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...	December 6, 1963
Pearl Bailey Pearl Bailey Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...	1988
Count Basie Count Basie William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...	1985	Posthumous award
Irving Berlin Irving Berlin Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...	1977
James "Eubie" Blake	1981
Pablo Casals Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...	1963
Van Cliburn Van Cliburn Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....	2003
Aaron Copland Aaron Copland Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...	1964
Plácido Domingo Plácido Domingo Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...	2002
Duke Ellington Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...	1969
Arthur Fiedler Arthur Fiedler Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...	1977
Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...	1992
Ernest Jennings "Tennessee Ernie" Ford Tennessee Ernie Ford Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...	March 26, 1984
Aretha Franklin Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...	2005
Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz    was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...	1986
B. B. King B. B. King Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...	2006
Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...	2011
Mabel Mercer Mabel Mercer Mabel Mercer was an English-born cabaret singer who performed in the United States, Britain, and Europe with the greats in jazz and cabaret. She was a featured performer at Chez Bricktop in Paris, owned by the hostess Bricktop, and performed in such clubs as Le Ruban Bleu, Tony's, the RSVP, the...	1983
Eugene Ormandy Eugene Ormandy Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...	1970
Leontyne Price Leontyne Price Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...	1964
Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...	1987
Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...	1976	Awarded With Distinction
Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin , was a Bohemian-born pianist.-Life and early career:Serkin was born in Eger, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a Russian-Jewish family....	1963
Beverly Sills Beverly Sills Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...	1980
Frank Sinatra Frank Sinatra Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...	1985
Kate Smith Kate Smith Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American Popular singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s.Smith was born in Greenville, Virginia...	1982
Isaac Stern Isaac Stern Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...	1992
Meredith Willson Meredith Willson Robert Meredith Willson was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright, best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man...	1987	Posthumous award

Photography

Nomination	Date	Note
Edwin H. Land Edwin H. Land Edwin Herbert Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and his retinex theory of color vision...	1963
Edward Steichen Edward Steichen Edward J. Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo design and a custom typeface...	1963
Ansel Adams Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....	1980

Business and economics

Nomination	Date	Note
Iorwith Wilbur Abel Iorwith Wilbur Abel Iorwith Wilbur Abel , also known as I.W. Abel, was an American labor leader.-Early life and union career:...	1977
Walter Annenberg Walter Annenberg Walter Hubert Annenberg was an American publisher, philanthropist, and diplomat.-Early life:Walter Annenberg was born to a Jewish family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 13, 1908. He was the son of Sarah and Moses "Moe" Annenberg, who published The Daily Racing Form and purchased The Philadelphia...	1986
Gary Becker Gary Becker Gary Stanley Becker is an American economist. He is a professor of economics, sociology at the University of Chicago and a professor at the Booth School of Business. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992, and received the United States' Presidential Medal of Freedom...	2007
Edgar Bronfman, Sr. Edgar Bronfman, Sr. Edgar Miles Bronfman is a Canadian businessman. He is a member of the Bronfman family.-Biography:Bronfman is the son of Samuel Bronfman, the founder of Distillers Corporation Limited, who purchased Seagram's in 1928...	1999
Irving Brown Irving Brown Irving Brown was an American trade-unionist, member of the American Federation of Labor and then of the AFL-CIO, who played an important role in Western Europe and in Africa, during the Cold War, in supporting splits among trade-unions in order to counter Communist influence...	1988
Warren Buffett Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often introduced as "legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is...	2011
James E. Burke James E. Burke James E. Burke was the chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson from 1976 to 1989, a company for which he worked forty years.-Early life:...	2000
Edward J. DeBartolo, Sr.	1988
Peter Drucker Peter Drucker Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”-Introduction:...	2002
David Dubinsky David Dubinsky David Dubinsky was an American labor leader...	1969
Henry Ford II Henry Ford II Henry Ford II , commonly known as "HF2" and "Hank the Deuce", was the son of Edsel Ford and grandson of Henry Ford...	1969
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...	1988
John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...	2000
Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...	2005
Bryce Harlow Bryce Harlow Bryce Harlow was a congressional staff member, army officer, and businessman.He was born in 1916 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Harlow graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1938. Harlow then went to Washington, D.C., where he served on Capitol Hill as assistant librarian of the U.S. House of...	1981
Friedrich von Hayek	1991
Paul G. Hoffman Paul G. Hoffman Paul Gray Hoffman was an American automobile company executive, statesman and global development aid administrator.Hoffman was born in Western Springs, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago...	1974
Edgar Kaiser Edgar Kaiser Edgar Fosburgh Kaiser, Jr is a Canadian financier and a former owner of the Denver Broncos American football team. He was born in Portland, Oregon on 5 July 1942 and is the grandson of shipbuilding industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. He earned a BA degree from Stanford University and an MBA degree...	1969
Frederick Kappel	1964
Lane Kirkland Lane Kirkland Joseph Lane Kirkland was a US labor union leader who served as President of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.-Biography:...	1994
Estée Lauder Estée Lauder (person) Estée Lauder was an American businesswoman who was the co-founder, along with her husband Joseph Lauder, of Estée Lauder Companies, a pioneering cosmetics company. Lauder was the only woman on TIME magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century. She was the...	2004
John L. Lewis John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960...	1964
J. Willard Marriott J. Willard Marriott John Willard Marriott was an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the founder of the Marriott Corporation , the parent company of one of the world's largest hospitality, hotel chains, and food services companies. The Marriott company rose from a small root beer stand in Washington D.C...	1988	Posthumous award
David Packard David Packard David Packard was a co-founder of Hewlett-Packard , serving as president , CEO , and Chairman of the Board . He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969–1971 during the Nixon administration...	1988
Clarence B. Randall	1963
Walter Reuther Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...	1995	Posthumous award
David Rockefeller David Rockefeller David Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...	1998
Laurance Rockefeller Laurance Rockefeller Laurance Spelman Rockefeller was a venture capitalist, financier, philanthropist, a major conservationist and a prominent third-generation member of the Rockefeller family. He was the fourth child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and brother to John D...	1969
James Rouse	1995
John J. Sweeney John Sweeney (labor leader) John Joseph Sweeney was the president of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009.-Early years:Born in The Bronx, New York, Sweeney is the son of Joseph and Agnes , both Irish immigrants. The family moved to Yonkers in 1944, where Sweeney attended St. Barnabas Elementary School and graduated from Cardinal...	2011
Dave Thomas Dave Thomas (American businessman) David "Dave" Thomas was an American fast-food entrepreneur and philanthropist. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers...	2003	Posthumous award
Tex Thornton Tex Thornton Charles Bates "Tex" Thornton was an American business executive who was the founder of Litton Industries.-Biography:...	1981
Juan Trippe Juan Trippe Juan Terry Trippe was an American airline entrepreneur and pioneer, and the founder of Pan American World Airways, one of the world's most prominent airlines of the twentieth century.-Early years:...	1985	Posthumous award
Sam Walton Sam Walton Samuel Moore "Sam" Wallballs was a businessman, entrepreneur, and Eagle Scout born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma best known for founding the retailers Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.-Early life:...	1992
Thomas Watson, Jr.	1964
Justin Whitlock Dart Justin Whitlock Dart Justin Whitlock Dart, Sr. was considered the "boy wonder" of the drug store industry. In college Dart had played football for Northwestern University....	1987	Posthumous award
Walter B. Wriston	2004
Muhammad Yunus Muhammad Yunus Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize...	2009

Computing

Nomination	Date	Note
Dr. Gordon Moore Gordon Moore Gordon Earle Moore is the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation and the author of Moore's Law .-Life and career:...	July 9, 2002
Dr. Vinton Cerf Vint Cerf Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn...	November 9, 2005
Dr. Robert Kahn Bob Kahn Robert Elliot Kahn is an American Internet pioneer, engineer and computer scientist, who, along with Vinton G. Cerf, invented the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol , the fundamental communication protocols at the heart of the Internet.-Career:After receiving a B.E.E...	November 9, 2005

Education

Nomination	Date	Note
Detlev Bronk Detlev Bronk Detlev Wulf Bronk was President of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland from 1949 to 1953 and President of the National Academy of Sciences from 1950 to 1962. Bronk is credited with reshaping the postwar university environment at Hopkins...	1964
Genevieve Caulfield Genevieve Caulfield Genevieve Caulfield was a blind American teacher, who started a school for blind people in Thailand.Born in Suffolk, Virginia, she lost her sight in an accident when she was two months old. Since her youth she had dreamed of becoming a teacher to help create a better understanding between Japanese...	1963
Dr. James E. Cheek	1983
Ruth Johnson Colvin Ruth Johnson Colvin Ruth Johnson Colvin is the founder of the non-profit organization Literacy Volunteers of America, now called ProLiteracy Worldwide in Syracuse, New York, in 1962. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in December 2006.-Biography:Colvin was born Ruth Johnson...	2006
Dr. James Bryant Conant James Bryant Conant James Bryant Conant was a chemist, educational administrator, and government official. As thePresident of Harvard University he reformed it as a research institution.-Biography :...	1963	Awarded With Distinction
Norman Francis Norman Francis Norman C. Francis , is the president of Xavier University of Louisiana. He has been Xavier's president since 1968, making him the longest-tenured current leader of an American university...	2006
Hanna Holborn Gray Hanna Holborn Gray Hanna Holborn Gray , is a historian of political thought in the area of the Renaissance and Reformation, and an emerita professor and former President of the University of Chicago.-Biography:...	1991
Rev. Theodore Hesburgh Theodore Hesburgh The Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC, STD , a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. He is the namesake for TIAA-CREF's Hesburgh Award.... , C.S.C.	1964
Jerome H. Holland Jerome H. Holland Jerome H. Holland was an educational administrator and diplomat.Jerome Heartwell Holland grew up in Auburn, New York. He graduated from Cornell University in 1939, after being the first African American to play on its football team...	1985	Posthumous award
Karl Holton	1963
Margaret McNamara Margaret McNamara Margaret Craig McNamara was the founder of the nonprofit children's literacy organization Reading is Fundamental....	1981
Alexander Meiklejohn Alexander Meiklejohn Alexander Meiklejohn was a philosopher, university administrator, and free-speech advocate. He served as dean of Brown University and president of Amherst College.- Life and career:...	1963
Antonia Pantoja Antonia Pantoja Dr. Antonia Pantoja , educator, social worker, feminist, civil rights leader and founder of ASPIRA, the Puerto Rican Forum, Boricua College and Producir.-Early years:...	1996
Frederick Patterson	1987
George W. Taylor (professor) George W. Taylor (professor) George W. Taylor was a notable professor of industrial relations at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and is credited with founding the academic field of study known as industrial relations. He served in several capacities in the federal government, most notably as a mediator...	1963

History

Nomination	Date	Note
Bruce Catton Bruce Catton Charles Bruce Catton was an American historian and journalist, best known for his books on the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular histories that emphasized colorful characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the basic facts, dates, and analyses...	1977
Robert Conquest Robert Conquest George Robert Ackworth Conquest CMG is a British historian who became a well-known writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of The Great Terror, an account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s...	2005
Ariel Durant Ariel Durant Ariel Durant was the co-author of The Story of Civilization.-Biography:Durant was born in Proskurov as Chaya Kaufman to Ethel Appel Kaufman and Joseph Kaufman. The family emigrated to the United States in 1901. She met her future husband, Will Durant, while a student at Ferrer Modern School in...	1977
Will Durant Will Durant William James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975...	1977
John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin was a United States historian and past president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and...	1995
Vartan Gregorian Vartan Gregorian Vartan Gregorian is an Armenian-American academic, serving as the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is an ethnic Armenian, born in Iran....	2004
Dumas Malone Dumas Malone Dumas Malone was an American historian, biographer, and editor noted for his six-volume biography on Thomas Jefferson, for which he received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for history...	1983
David McCullough David McCullough David Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award....	2006
Samuel Eliot Morison Samuel Eliot Morison Samuel Eliot Morison, Rear Admiral, United States Naval Reserve was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history that were both authoritative and highly readable. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and taught history at the university for 40 years...	1964
Roberta Wohlstetter Roberta Wohlstetter Roberta Mary Morgan, better known by her married name of Roberta Wohlstetter, , was one of America's most important historians of military intelligence. Her most influential work is Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision. The former secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is said to have required that...	1985

Humanitarian

Nomination	Date	Note
Norman Borlaug Norman Borlaug Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate who has been called "the father of the Green Revolution". Borlaug was one of only six people to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal...	1977
Nancy Goodman Brinker	2009
Millard Fuller Millard Fuller Millard Dean Fuller was the founder and former president of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit organization known globally for building houses for those in need, and the founder and former president of The Fuller Center for Housing...	1996
John W. Gardner John W. Gardner John William Gardner, was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson. During World War II he served in the United States Marine Corps as a captain. In 1955 he became president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and, concurrently, the Carnegie Foundation for...	1964
Frances Hesselbein Frances Hesselbein Frances Hesselbein is the President and CEO of Leader to Leader Institute and is its Founding President....	1998
Gerda Weissmann Klein Gerda Weissmann Klein Gerda Weissmann Klein is an author, humanitarian, historian, inspirational speaker , naturalized citizen and Holocaust survivor. For over six decades she has captivated audiences worldwide with her powerful message of hope, inspiration, love and humanity...	2011
Paul Rusesabagina Paul Rusesabagina Paul Rusesabagina is a Rwandan humanitarian who has been internationally honored for saving 1,268 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide. He was the assistant manager of the Sabena Hôtel des Mille Collines before he became the manager of the Hôtel des Diplomates, both in Kigali, Rwanda...	2005
Eunice Kennedy Shriver Eunice Kennedy Shriver Eunice Kennedy Shriver, DSG a member of the Kennedy family, sister to President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, was the founder in 1962 of Camp Shriver, and in 1968, the Special Olympics...	March 26, 1984
Leon Sullivan Leon Sullivan Leon Howard Sullivan was a Baptist minister, a civil rights leader and social activist focusing on the creation of job training opportunities for African-Americans, a longtime General Motors Board Member, and an anti-Apartheid activist. Sullivan died on April 24, 2001, of leukemia at a Scottsdale,...	1991
Annie D. Wauneka	December 6, 1963

Media

Recipient	Date	Contributions to	Notes
Robert L. Bartley Robert L. Bartley Robert Leroy Bartley was the editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal for more than 30 years. He won a Pulitzer Prize for opinion writing and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the Bush administration in 2003...	2004	Journalism
Earl Charles Behrens	1970	Journalism
Herbert L. Block Herblock Herbert Lawrence Block, commonly known as Herblock , was an American editorial cartoonist and author best known for his commentary on national domestic and foreign policy from a liberal perspective.-Career:...	1994	Journalism
William F. Buckley, Jr. William F. Buckley, Jr. William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...	1991	Journalism
Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...	1981 and 1965	Journalism
Edward T. Folliard	1970	Journalism
Katharine Graham Katharine Graham Katharine Meyer Graham was an American publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon...	2002	Journalism	Posthumous award
William M. Henry	1970	Journalism
John H. Johnson John H. Johnson John Harold Johnson was an American businessman and publisher. He was the founder of the Johnson Publishing Company. In 1982 he became the first African-American to appear on the Forbes 400.ÀčĐċĎ- Biography :...	1996	Journalism
Paul Johnson	2006	Journalism
Arthur Krock Arthur Krock Arthur Krock was a journalist and received the nickname "Dean of Washington newsmen". Born in Glasgow, Kentucky in 1887, he grew up with his grandparents, Emmanuel and Henrietta Morris...	1970	Journalism
David Lawrence David Lawrence (publisher) David Lawrence was a conservative newspaperman and former student of Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University. After his reelection as U.S...	1970	Journalism
George Gould Lincoln	1970	Journalism
Walter Lippmann Walter Lippmann Walter Lippmann was an American intellectual, writer, reporter, and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War...	1964	Journalism
Ralph McGill Ralph McGill Ralph Emerson McGill , American journalist, was best known as the anti-segregationist editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959....	1964	Journalism
Raymond Moley Raymond Moley Raymond Charles Moley was a leading New Dealer who became its bitter opponent before the end of the Great Depression....	1970	Journalism
Edward R. Murrow Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...	1964	Journalism	Awarded with Distinction
Frank Reynolds Frank Reynolds Frank James Reynolds was an American television journalist for ABC and CBS News.He was a New York-based anchor of the ABC Evening News from 1968 to 1970 and later as the Washington D.C.-based co-anchor of World News Tonight from 1978 until his death in 1983...	1985	Journalism	Posthumous award
Abe M. Rosenthal	2002	Journalism
Vermont C. Royster	1986	Journalism
William Safire William Safire William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....	2006	Journalism
Albert Merriman Smith Albert Merriman Smith Merriman Smith was a wire service reporter, notably serving as White House correspondent for United Press International and its predecessor, United Press.He was born in Savannah, Georgia....	1967	Journalism
Adela Rogers St. Johns Adela Rogers St. Johns Adela Rogers St. Johns was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies and, late in life, appeared with other early twentieth-century figures as one of the 'witnesses' in Warren Beatty's Reds, but she is best remembered for her...	1970	Journalism
Lila Bell Wallace Lila Bell Wallace Lila Bell Wallace was a United States magazine publisher.Born as Lila Bell Acheson, her father was a Presbyterian minister who brought his family to the USA when she was a child, and she grew up in the Midwest...	1972	Journalism
Mark S. Watson	1963	Journalism
William S. White	1969	Journalism
Lowell Thomas Lowell Thomas Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...	1977	Radio
Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt , better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated, at...	2005	Radio
Lucille Ball Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...	1989	Television	Posthumous award
David Brinkley David Brinkley David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997....	1992	Television
Carol Burnett Carol Burnett Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...	2005	Television
Johnny Carson Johnny Carson John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...	1992	Television
Peggy Charren Peggy Charren Peggy Charren founded Action for Children's Television , a national child advocacy organization, in 1968, in an effort to encourage program diversity and eliminate commercial abuses in children's television programming....	1995	Television
Joan Ganz Cooney Joan Ganz Cooney Joan Ganz Cooney is an American television producer. She is one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop , the organization famous for the creation of the children's television show Sesame Street. Cooney received her B.A...	1995	Television
Bill Cosby Bill Cosby William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...	2002	Television
Andy Griffith Andy Griffith Andy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's epic film A Face in the Crowd before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead...	2005	Television
Brian P. Lamb	2007	Television
Fred Rogers	2002	Television

Medicine

• Benjamin Carson (2008)
• Dr. Denton Cooley
  Denton Cooley
  Denton Arthur Cooley is an American heart surgeon famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart. Cooley is also founder and surgeon in-chief of the Texas Heart Institute, chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at St...
  
   (March 26, 1984)
• Michael DeBakey (1969)
• Lena Frances Edwards
  Lena Frances Edwards
  Lena Frances Edwards was a New Jersey physician who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.-Background:Madison was the daughter of Thomas Edwards and Marie Coakley...
  
   (1964)
• John F. Enders (1963)
• Anthony Fauci
  Anthony Fauci
  Anthony S. Fauci is an immunologist who has made substantial contributions to research in the areas of AIDS and other immunodeficiencies, both as a scientist and as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases .-Education and career:Anthony Stephen Fauci was born on...
  
   (2008)
• Pedro José Greer, Jr.
  Pedro José Greer
  Dr. Pedro José Greer, Jr. is an American physician. He is Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Chair of the Department of Humanities, Health and Society at the Florida International University School of Medicine...
  
   (2009)
• David Hamburg (1996)
• Donald Henderson
  Donald Henderson
  Donald Ainslie Henderson, known as D.A. Henderson, is an American physician and epidemiologist, who headed the international effort during the 1960s to eradicate smallpox. , he is a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Biosecurity and a professor of...
  
   (2002)
• Surgeon General
  Surgeon General of the United States
  The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
  
   C. Everett Koop
  C. Everett Koop
  Charles Everett Koop, MD is an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989.-Early years:Koop was born...
  
   (1995)
• Tom Little (2011, Posthumous)
• Charles LeRoy Lowman (1974)
• Karl Menninger
  Karl Menninger
  Karl Augustus Menninger , was an American psychiatrist and a member of the famous Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas.- Biography :...
  
   (1981)
• Arnall Patz
  Arnall Patz
  Arnall Patz was an American medical doctor and research professor at Johns Hopkins University. In the early 1950s, Patz discovered that oxygen therapy was the cause of an epidemic of blindness among some 10,000 premature babies. Following his discovery, there was a sixty percent reduction in...
  
   (2004)
• Janet Davison Rowley (2009)
• Albert Sabin
  Albert Sabin
  Albert Bruce Sabin was an American medical researcher best known for having developed an oral polio vaccine.-Life:...
  
   (1986)
• Jonas Salk
  Jonas Salk
  Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families...
  
   (1977)
• Helen B. Taussig
  Helen B. Taussig
  Helen Brooke Taussig was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. Notably, she is credited with developing the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with Tetrology of Fallot...
  
   (1964)
• William B. Walsh
  William B. Walsh
  William Bertalan Walsh, M.D. was the founder of Project HOPE .Walsh was born on April 26, 1920, in Brooklyn. He received a bachelor's degree from St. John's University in Queens, New York. He graduated from medical school at Georgetown University in 1943.He served as a ship's doctor aboard a...
  
   (1987)
• Paul Dudley White
  Paul Dudley White
  Paul Dudley White , American physician and cardiologist, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Herbert Warren White and Elizabeth Abigail Dudley. White's interest in medicine was sparked early in life, when he accompanied his father, a family practitioner, on rounds and house calls in a...
  
   (1964)

Philanthropy

• J. Clifford MacDonald (1963)
• Lowell Thomas
  Lowell Thomas
  Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...
  
   (January 10, 1977)
• Catherine Filene Shouse
  Catherine Filene Shouse
  Catherine Filene Shouse was a researcher and philanthropist. She graduated in 1918 from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. She worked for the Women's Division of the U.S. Employment Service of the Department of Labor, and the Democratic National Committee...
  
   (1977)
• Morris I. Leibman (1981)
• Brooke Astor
  Brooke Astor
  Roberta Brooke Astor was an American philanthropist and socialite who was the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which had been established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, son of John Jacob Astor IV and great-great grandson of America's first multi-millionaire, John Jacob...
  
   (1998)
• Zachary Fisher
  Zachary Fisher
  Zachary Fisher was a prominent Jewish American philanthropist in the New York real estate community and a major philanthropic benefactor for the men and women in the United States Armed Forces and their families, as well as numerous other not-for-profit organizations.He founded the Fisher House...
  
   (1998)
• Eugene Lang
  Eugene Lang
  Eugene M. "Gene" Lang is an American philanthropist who founded REFAC Technology Development Corporation in 1951. He created the I Have A Dream Foundation in 1981, and Project Pericles in 2001. He has also made large donations to Swarthmore College, The New School's undergraduate liberal arts...
  
   (1996)

Philosophy

• Will Durant
  Will Durant
  William James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975...
  
   (January 10, 1977)
• Sidney Hook
  Sidney Hook
  Sidney Hook was an American pragmatic philosopher known for his contributions to public debates.A student of John Dewey, Hook continued to examine the philosophy of history, of education, politics, and of ethics. After embracing Marxism in his youth, Hook was known for his criticisms of...
  
   (1985)
• Friedrich Hayek
  Friedrich Hayek
  Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
  
   (1991)

Activism

• Arnold Aronson
  Arnold Aronson
  Arnold Aronson was a founder of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and served as its executive secretary from 1950 to 1980. In 1941 he worked with A. Philip Randolph to pressure President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8002, opening jobs in the federal bureaucracy and in...
  
   (1998)
• Roger Nash Baldwin
  Roger Nash Baldwin
  Roger Nash Baldwin was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union . He served as executive director of the ACLU until 1950....
  
   (1981)
• Oscar Elias Biscet
  Oscar Elías Biscet
  Óscar Elías Biscet González , is a Cuban medical professional and a noted advocate for human rights and democratic freedoms in Cuba. He is also the founder of the Lawton Foundation....
  
   (2007)
• César Chávez
  César Chávez
  César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
  
   (1994, posthumously)
• Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr.
  Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr.
  Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr. was an American activist and advocate for people with disabilities. He helped to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities .-Background:Dart came from a wealthy Chicago family...
  
   (1998)
• Evelyn Dubrow
  Evelyn Dubrow
  Evelyn Dubrow was a legendary labour lobbyist for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.Dubrow attended New York University, where she studied journalism....
  
   (1999)
• Marian Wright Edelman
  Marian Wright Edelman
  Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.-Early years:...
  
   (August 9, 2000)
• James L. Farmer, Jr.
  James L. Farmer, Jr.
  James Leonard Farmer, Jr. was a civil rights activist and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was the initiator and organizer of the 1961 Freedom Ride, which eventually led to the desegregation of inter-state transportation in the United States.In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee...
  
   (1998)
• Dr. Hector Garcia
  Hector P. Garcia
  Hector Perez Garcia was a Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum. As a result of the national prominence he earned through his work on behalf of Hispanic Americans, he was instrumental in the appointment of Mexican...
  
   (March 26, 1984)
• Dorothy Height
  Dorothy Height
  Dorothy Irene Height was an American administrator, educator, and social activist. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for forty years, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.-Early life:Height was born in...
  
   (1994)
• George G. Higgins
  George G. Higgins
  Msgr. George Gilmary Higgins was a renowned labor activist. He is known as the "labor priest," and has been a moving force in the Roman Catholic church's support for the late Cesar Chavez and his union movement....
  
   (2000)
• Benjamin Hooks
  Benjamin Hooks
  Benjamin Lawson Hooks was an American civil rights leader. A Baptist minister and practicing attorney, he served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1977 to 1992, and throughout his career was a vocal campaigner for civil rights in the...
  
   (2007)
• Rev. Jesse Jackson
  Jesse Jackson
  Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
  
   (2000)
• Millie Jeffrey
  Millie Jeffrey
  Mildred McWilliams "Millie" Jeffrey was a lifetime pioneer for workers', civil and women's rights, becoming a union organizer in Philadelphia in 1935 for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. In 1945, she became the first female department head of the United Auto Workers union...
  
   (2000)
• Helen Keller
  Helen Keller
  Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
  
   (1964)
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
  
   (1977, posthumously)
• Fred Korematsu
  Fred Korematsu
  was one of the many Japanese-American citizens living on the West Coast during World War II. Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War and his military commanders to require all...
  
   (1998)
• Mary Lasker
  Mary Lasker
  Mary Woodard Lasker was an American health activist. She worked to raise funds for medical research, and founded the Lasker Foundation....
  
   (1969)
• Rev. Joseph Lowery
  Joseph Lowery
  Joseph Echols Lowery is a minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the American civil rights movement. He later became the third president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his immediate successor, Rev. Dr...
  
   (2009)
• Sylvia Mendez
  Sylvia Mendez
  Sylvia Mendez is an American civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage.At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The case successfully ended de jure segregation in California...
  
   (2011)
• Harvey Milk
  Harvey Milk
  Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
  
   (2009, posthumously)
• Clarence M. Mitchell (1980)
• Mario G. Obledo (1998)
• Rosa Parks
  Rosa Parks
  Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
  
   (1996)
• Esther Peterson
  Esther Peterson
  Esther Eggertsen Peterson was a lifelong consumer and women's advocate.-Background:The daughter of Danish immigrants, Esther Eggertsen grew up in a Mormon family in Provo, Utah. She graduated from Brigham Young University in 1927 with a degree in physical education. She moved to New York City...
  
   (1981)
• Ginetta Sagan (1996)
• Natan Sharansky
  Natan Sharansky
  Natan Sharansky was born in Stalino, Soviet Union on 20 January 1948 to a Jewish family. He graduated with a degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a child, he was a chess prodigy. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold displays, usually against...
  
   (2006)
• William C. Velasquez (1995, posthumously)
• Lech Wałęsa
  Lech Wałęsa
  Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
  
   (1989)
• Roy Wilkins
  Roy Wilkins
  Roy Wilkins was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was in his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ....
  
   (1967)
• Andrew Young
  Andrew Young
  Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
  
   (1981)

Diplomacy

• Anne L. Armstrong (1987)
• Manlio Brosio
  Manlio Brosio
  Manlio Giovanni Brosio was an Italian lawyer, diplomat, politician and the fourth Secretary General of NATO between 1964 and 1971.-Biography:...
  
   (1971)
• David K. E. Bruce
  David K. E. Bruce
  David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce was an American diplomat, and the only American to serve as Ambassador to France, the Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom.-Biography:...
  
   (1976) – Awarded With Distinction
• Dr. Ralph J. Bunche
  Ralph Bunche
  Ralph Johnson Bunche or 1904December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize...
  
   (December 6, 1963) – Awarded With Distinction
• Ellsworth Bunker
  Ellsworth Bunker
  Ellsworth F. Bunker was an American businessman and diplomat...
  
   (Twice; December 6, 1963 and 1967) – Awarded With Distinction (both awards)
• Ryan Crocker
  Ryan Crocker
  Ryan Clark Crocker is a Career Ambassador within the United States Foreign Service and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He currently is the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan. He was the United States Ambassador to Iraq until 2009; he previously served as the U.S...
  
   (2009)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Andrew Goodpaster
  Andrew Goodpaster
  Andrew Jackson Goodpaster was an American Army General. He served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from July 1, 1969 and Commander in Chief of the United States European Command from May 5, 1969 until his retirement December 17, 1974...
  
   (1984)
• Philip Habib
  Philip Habib
  Philip Charles Habib was a Lebanese-American career diplomat known for work in Vietnam, South Korea and the Middle East...
  
   (1982)
• George F. Kennan
  George F. Kennan
  George Frost Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War...
  
   (1989)
• Jeane Kirkpatrick
  Jeane Kirkpatrick
  Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S...
  
   (1985)
• Sol M. Linowitz (1998)
• Harry W. Shlaudeman
  Harry W. Shlaudeman
  -Biography:Harry W. Shlaudeman was born in Los Angeles on May 17, 1926. During World War II, he served in the United States Marine Corps from 1944 to 1946. After the war, he attended Stanford University, receiving his B.A. in 1952....
  
   (1992)
• Gerard C. Smith
  Gerard C. Smith
  Gerard Coad Smith was the chief U.S. delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in 1969 and the first U.S. Chairman of the Trilateral Commission. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 16, 1981 by President Jimmy Carter.-Biography:Gerard Smith was born in New York City...
  
   (1981)
• Jean Kennedy Smith
  Jean Kennedy Smith
  Jean Ann Kennedy Smith is an American diplomat and a former United States Ambassador to Ireland. She is the eighth of nine children born to Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald and is their last surviving child. She is the sister of the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy,...
  
   (2011)
• Robert Schwarz Strauss
  Robert Schwarz Strauss
  Robert Schwarz Strauss is a figure in American politics and diplomacy. A Texas political figure, Strauss’s political service dates back to future president Lyndon Johnson’s first congressional campaign in 1937. By the 1950s, he was associated in Texas politics with the conservative faction of...
  
   (1981)

Environmentalism

• John H. Adams
  John H. Adams (NRDC)
  John Hamilton Adams co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1970. Adams served as executive director and, later, as president of the nonprofit conservation group until 2006. Prior to co-founding NRDC, Adams served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan...
  
   (2011)
• Horace M. Albright
  Horace M. Albright
  Horace Marden Albright was an American conservationist.Horace Albright was born 1890 in Bishop, California, the son of George Albright, a miner. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1912 , and earned a law degree from Georgetown University...
  
   (1980)
• Rachel Carson
  Rachel Carson
  Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
  
   (1980, posthumously)
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas
  Marjory Stoneman Douglas
  Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development...
  
   (1993)
• Gilbert Melville Grosvenor
  Gilbert Melville Grosvenor
  Gilbert Melville Grosvenor, born on May 5, 1931, is past president and chief executive of the National Geographic Society, as well as a former editor of National Geographic Magazine....
  
   (2004)
• Margaret Murie
  Margaret Murie
  Margaret Thomas "Mardy" Murie was a naturalist, author, adventurer, and conservationist. Dubbed the "Grandmother of the Conservation Movement" by both the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society,  she helped in the passage of the Wilderness Act, and was instrumental in creating the Arctic...
  
   (1998)
• Roger Tory Peterson
  Roger Tory Peterson
  Roger Tory Peterson , was an American naturalist, ornithologist, artist, and educator, and held to be one of the founding inspirations for the 20th century environmental movement.-Background:...
  
   (1980)
• Russell E. Train
  Russell E. Train
  Russell Errol Train was the second Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency , from September 1973 to January 1977, and the Founder Chairman Emeritus of World Wildlife Fund . As head of the EPA under U.S...
  
   (1991)
• Edgar Wayburn
  Edgar Wayburn
  Edgar Wayburn was an environmentalist who was elected president of the Sierra Club five times in the 1960s. One of America's legendary wilderness champions, Dr...
  
   (1999)

Espionage / Service to Country

• Whittaker Chambers
  Whittaker Chambers
  Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
  
   (March 26, 1984)
• Jean MacArthur
  Jean MacArthur
  Jean Marie Faircloth MacArthur was the second wife of U.S. Army General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.- Early life and education :...
  
   (1988)
• George Tenet
  George Tenet
  George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
  
   (2004)

Foreign heads of state or government

• Tony Blair
  Tony Blair
  Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
  
   (January 13, 2009)
• Don Luis A. Ferré
  Luis A. Ferré
  Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the third Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973, and the founding father of the New Progressive Party which advocates for Puerto Rico...
  
   (1991)
• Václav Havel
  Václav Havel
  Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
  
   (2003)
• John Howard
  John Howard
  John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
  
   (2009)
• Helmut Kohl
  Helmut Kohl
  Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
  
   (1999)
• Joseph Luns
  Joseph Luns
  Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal . He was the longest-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs from September 2, 1952 until July 6, 1971...
  
   (1984)
• Nelson Mandela
  Nelson Mandela
  Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
  
   (2002)
• Wilma Mankiller
  Wilma Mankiller
  Wilma Pearl Mankiller was the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She served as principal chief for ten years from 1985 to 1995.-Early life:...
  
   (January 15, 1998)
• Luis Muñoz Marín
  Luis Muñoz Marín
  Don José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín was a Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician. Regarded as the "father of modern Puerto Rico," he was the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. Muñoz Marín was the son of Luis Muñoz Rivera, a renowned autonomist leader...
  
   (1963) – Awarded With Distinction
• Angela Merkel
  Angela Merkel
  Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
  
   (2011)
• Mary Robinson
  Mary Robinson
  Mary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...
  
   (2009)
• Carlos P. Romulo
  Carlos P. Rómulo
  Carlos Peña Rómulo was a Filipino diplomat, politician, soldier, journalist and author. He was a reporter at 16, a newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32...
  
   (1984)
• President Anwar el-Sadat (March 26, 1984, posthumously)
• Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2007)
• Margaret Thatcher
  Margaret Thatcher
  Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
  
   (1991)
• Álvaro Uribe
  Álvaro Uribe
  Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
  
   (2009)

Law

• Henry J. Friendly (1977)
• A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (1995)
• Oliver White Hill (1999)
• Frank Minis Johnson
  Frank Minis Johnson
  Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. was a United States Federal judge, made a number of landmark civil rights rulings that helped end segregation in the South...
  
   (1995)
• Irving Robert Kaufman (1987)
• Joseph Warren Madden
  J. Warren Madden
  J. Warren Madden, born Joseph Warren Madden, was an American lawyer, judge, civil servant, and educator. He served on the United States Court of Claims and was the first Chair of the National Labor Relations Board...
  
   (1947)
• Joseph L. Rauh, Jr.
  Joseph L. Rauh, Jr.
  Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. was one of the United States' foremost civil rights and civil liberties lawyers. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993.-Early life:Rauh was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the...
  
   (1993, posthumously)
• Cruz Reynoso
  Cruz Reynoso
  Cruz Reynoso is a civil rights lawyer, professor emeritus of law, and the first Chicano Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court . He also served on the California Third District Court of Appeal...
  
   (2000)
• Laurence Silberman (2008)
• Elbert Tuttle
  Elbert Tuttle
  Elbert Parr Tuttle , one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a liberal Republican from Georgia, was chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1960 to 1967, when that court became known for a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of African-Americans...
  
   (1981)
• John Minor Wisdom
  John Minor Wisdom
  John Minor Wisdom , one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a liberal Republican from Louisiana, was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit during the 1950s and 1960s, when that court became known for a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of...
  
   (1993)

Military

• General of the Army
  General of the Army
  General of the Army is a military rank used in some countries to denote a senior military leader, usually a General in command of a nation's Army. It may also be the title given to a General who commands an Army in the field....
  
   Omar Bradley
  Omar Bradley
  Omar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
  
   (1977)
• Admiral
  Admiral (United States)
  In the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, admiral is a four-star flag officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. Admiral ranks above vice admiral and below Fleet Admiral in the Navy; the Coast Guard and the Public Health...
  
   Arleigh Burke
  Arleigh Burke
  Admiral Arleigh Albert '31-knot' Burke was an admiral of the United States Navy who distinguished himself during World War II and the Korean War, and who served as Chief of Naval Operations during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.-Early life and naval career:Burke was born in Boulder,...
  
   (1977)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Wesley Clark
  Wesley Clark
  Wesley Kanne Clark, Sr., is a retired general of the United States Army. Graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later graduated from the...
  
   (2000)
• War Chief Joe Medicine Crow
  Joe Medicine Crow
  Joseph Medicine Crow is a Crow historian and author. He is also an enrolled member of the Crow Nation of Native Americans...
  
   (2009)
• Admiral
  Admiral (United States)
  In the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, admiral is a four-star flag officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. Admiral ranks above vice admiral and below Fleet Admiral in the Navy; the Coast Guard and the Public Health...
  
   William J. Crowe
  William J. Crowe
  Admiral William James Crowe, Jr. was a United States Navy Admiral who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and as the ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Bill Clinton.-Biography:Crowe was born in La Grange, Kentucky...
  
   (2000)
• Lieutenant General
  Lieutenant General (United States)
  In the United States Army, the United States Air Force and the United States Marine Corps, lieutenant general is a three-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-9. Lieutenant general ranks above major general and below general...
  
   Jimmy Doolittle
  Jimmy Doolittle
  General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, USAF was an American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served as a brigadier general, major general and lieutenant general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War...
  
   (1989)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Tommy Franks
  Tommy Franks
  Tommy Ray Franks is a retired general in the United States Army. His last Army post was as the Commander of the United States Central Command, overseeing United States Armed Forces operations in a 25-country region, including the Middle East...
  
   (2004)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Lyman Lemnitzer
  Lyman Lemnitzer
  Lyman Louis Lemnitzer was a United States Army General, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1960 to 1962. He then served as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO from 1963 to 1969.-Biography:...
  
   (1987)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Richard B. Myers (2005)
• Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
  Jan Nowak-Jezioranski
  Jan Nowak-Jeziorański was a Polish journalist, writer, politician, social worker and patriot. He served during the Second World War as one of the most notable resistance fighters of the Home Army...
  
   (1996)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Peter Pace
  Peter Pace
  Peter Pace is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first Marine appointed to the United States' highest-ranking military office. Appointed by President George W. Bush, Pace succeeded U.S. Air Force General Richard Myers on...
  
   (2008)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Matthew B. Ridgeway (1986)
• Captain Joseph Rochefort
  Joseph Rochefort
  Joseph John Rochefort was an American Naval officer and cryptanalyst. His contributions and those of his team were pivotal to victory in the Pacific War....
  
   (1986, posthumously)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   H. Norman Schwarzkopf (1991)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   John Shalikashvili (1997)
• John Paul Vann
  John Paul Vann
  John Paul Vann was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, later retired, who became well known for his role in the Vietnam War.-Early life:...
  
   (1972)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   John W. Vessey (1992)
• James E. Webb
  James E. Webb
  James Edwin Webb was an American government official who served as the second administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961 to October 7, 1968....
  
   (1969)
• General
  General (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
  
   Albert Coady Wedemeyer
  Albert Coady Wedemeyer
  General Albert Coady Wedemeyer was a United States Army commander who served primarily in Asia during World War II. His most notable command was the China theater in the South-East Asia Theater. During the Cold War, Wedemeyer was a chief supporter of the Berlin Airlift.-Early Life and military...
  
   (1985)
• Major General
  Major general (United States)
  In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...
  
   Chuck Yeager
  Chuck Yeager
  Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
  
   (1985)
• Admiral
  Admiral (United States)
  In the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, admiral is a four-star flag officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. Admiral ranks above vice admiral and below Fleet Admiral in the Navy; the Coast Guard and the Public Health...
  
   Elmo Zumwalt (1998)

Supreme Court Justices

• Associate Justice
  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
  
   William J. Brennan, Jr.
  William J. Brennan, Jr.
  William Joseph Brennan, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990...
  
   (1993)
• Chief Justice
  Chief Justice of the United States
  The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
  
   Warren E. Burger
  Warren E. Burger
  Warren Earl Burger was the 15th Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Although Burger had conservative leanings, the U.S...
  
   (1988)
• Associate Justice
  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
  
   Felix Frankfurter
  Felix Frankfurter
  Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. He was the third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter...
  
   (December 6, 1963) – Awarded With Distinction
• Associate Justice
  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
  
   Arthur J. Goldberg (1978)
• Associate Justice
  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
  
   Thurgood Marshall
  Thurgood Marshall
  Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
  
   (1993)
• Associate Justice
  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
  
   Sandra Day O'Connor
  Sandra Day O'Connor
  Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
  
   (August 12, 2009)
• Chief Justice
  Chief Justice of the United States
  The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
  
   Earl Warren
  Earl Warren
  Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.He is known for the sweeping decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring...
  
   (1981, posthumously)
• Associate Justice
  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
  Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
  
   Byron White
  Byron White
  Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White won fame both as a football halfback and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Appointed to the court by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, he served until his retirement in 1993...
  
   (2003, posthumously)

U.S. Cabinet members

• Dean Acheson
  Dean Acheson
  Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, he played a central role in defining American foreign policy during the Cold War...
  
   (1964) – Awarded With Distinction
• James Baker
  James Baker
  James Addison Baker, III is an American attorney, politician and political advisor.Baker served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush...
  
   (1991)
• Malcolm Baldrige, Jr.
  Malcolm Baldrige, Jr.
  Howard Malcolm "Mac" Baldrige, Jr. was the 26th United States Secretary of Commerce. He was the son of H. Malcolm Baldrige, a Congressman from Nebraska, and the brother of Letitia Baldrige....
  
   (1988, posthumously)
• Harold Brown
  Harold Brown (Secretary of Defense)
  Harold Brown , American scientist, was U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981 in the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter. He had previously served in the Lyndon Johnson administration as Director of Defense Research and Engineering and Secretary of the Air Force.While Secretary of Defense, he...
  
   (1981)
• Zbigniew Brzezinski
  Zbigniew Brzezinski
  Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981....
  
   (1981)
• Dick Cheney, as Secretary of Defense (July 3, 1991)
• Warren Christopher
  Warren Christopher
  Warren Minor Christopher was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician. During Bill Clinton's first term as President, Christopher served as the 63rd Secretary of State. He also served as Deputy Attorney General in the Lyndon Johnson administration, and as Deputy Secretary of State in the Jimmy...
  
   (1981)
• Clark Clifford
  Clark Clifford
  Clark McAdams Clifford was an American lawyer who served United States Presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter, serving as United States Secretary of Defense for Johnson....
  
   (1969) – Awarded With Distinction
• William T. Coleman, Jr. (1995)
• C. Douglas Dillon
  C. Douglas Dillon
  Clarence Douglas Dillon was an American diplomat and politician, who served as U.S. Ambassador to France and as the 57th Secretary of the Treasury...
  
   (1989)
• Robert Gates
  Robert Gates
  Dr. Robert Michael Gates is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W....
  
   (2011)
• Averell Harriman (1969) – Awarded With Distinction
• Henry Kissinger
  Henry Kissinger
  Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
  
   (1977)
• Melvin Laird (1974)
• Robert A. Lovett
  Robert A. Lovett
  Robert Abercrombie Lovett was the fourth United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the cabinet of President Harry S. Truman from 1951 to 1953 and in this capacity, directed the Korean War. Promoted to the position from deputy secretary of defense Domhoff described Lovett as a "Cold War...
  
   (1963) – Awarded With Distinction
• Robert S. McNamara (1968)
• Norman Mineta
  Norman Mineta
  Norman Yoshio Mineta, is a United States politician of the Democratic Party. Mineta most recently served in President George W. Bush's Cabinet as the United States Secretary of Transportation, the only Democratic Cabinet Secretary in the Bush administration...
  
   (2006)
• William Perry
  William Perry
  William James Perry is an American businessman and engineer who was the United States Secretary of Defense from February 3, 1994, to January 23, 1997, under President Bill Clinton...
  
   (1997)
• Colin Powell
  Colin Powell
  Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
  
   (1991 and 1993)
• Elliot Richardson
  Elliot Richardson
  Elliot Lee Richardson was an American lawyer and politician who was a member of the cabinet of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. As U.S...
  
   (1998)
• William P. Rogers
  William P. Rogers
  William Pierce Rogers was an American politician, who served as a Cabinet officer in the administrations of two U.S. Presidents in the third quarter of the 20th century.-Early Life :...
  
   (1973)
• Donald Rumsfeld
  Donald Rumsfeld
  Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
  
   (1977) – Awarded With Distinction
• Dean Rusk
  Dean Rusk
  David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...
  
   (1969) – Awarded With Distinction
• Donna Shalala
  Donna Shalala
  Donna Edna Shalala served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton and has been president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, since 2001. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest...
  
   (2008)
• George P. Shultz
  George P. Shultz
  George Pratt Shultz is an American economist, statesman, and businessman. He served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1969 to 1970, as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1972 to 1974, and as the U.S. Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989...
  
   (1989)
• Cyrus Vance
  Cyrus Vance
  Cyrus Roberts Vance was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980...
  
   (1969)
• Caspar Weinberger
  Caspar Weinberger
  Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
  
   (1987) – Awarded With Distinction

U.S. First Ladies

• Lady Bird Johnson
  Lady Bird Johnson
  Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
  
   (January 10, 1977)
• Betty Ford
  Betty Ford
  Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...
  
   (November 18, 1991)
• Rosalynn Carter
  Rosalynn Carter
  Eleanor Rosalynn Carter is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental...
  
   (August 9, 1999)
• Nancy Reagan
  Nancy Reagan
  Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
  
   (July 9, 2002)

U.S. members of Congress

• Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr. (March 26, 1984)
• Senator
  United States Senate
  The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
  
   Lloyd M. Bentsen (1999)
• Senator Edward W. Brooke (2004)
• Senator John H. Chafee (2000, posthumously)
• Senator Bob Dole
  Bob Dole
  Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
  
   (1997)
• Representative
  United States House of Representatives
  The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
  
   Dante B. Fascell (1998)
• Senator William Fulbright (1993)
• Senator Barry Goldwater
  Barry Goldwater
  Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
  
   (1986)
• Representative Henry Hyde
  Henry Hyde
  Henry John Hyde , an American politician, was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2007, representing the 6th District of Illinois, an area of Chicago's northwestern suburbs which included O'Hare International Airport...
  
   (2007)
• Senator Henry M. Jackson
  Henry M. Jackson
  Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson was a U.S. Congressman and Senator from the state of Washington from 1941 until his death...
  
   (1984, posthumously)
• Senator Jacob K. Javits
  Jacob K. Javits
  Jacob Koppel "Jack" Javits was a politician who served as United States Senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. A liberal Republican, he was originally allied with Governor Nelson Rockefeller, fellow U.S...
  
   (1983)
• Representative Barbara Jordan
  Barbara Jordan
  Barbara Charline Jordan was an American politician who was both a product and a leader, of the Civil Rights movement. She was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives...
  
   (1994)
• Representative Walter Judd
  Walter Judd
  Walter Henry Judd was an American politician best known for his battle in Congress to define the conservative position on China as all-out support for the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-sheck and opposition to the Communists under Mao...
  
   (1981)
• Representative Jack Kemp
  Jack Kemp
  Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...
  
   (2009, posthumously)
• Senator Edward Kennedy
  Ted Kennedy
  Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
  
   (2009)
• Representative Tom Lantos
  Tom Lantos
  Thomas Peter "Tom" Lantos was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death, representing the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a portion of southwest San Francisco...
  
   (2008)
• Representative John Lewis (2011)
• Representative Clare Boothe Luce
  Clare Boothe Luce
  Clare Boothe Luce was an American playwright, editor, journalist, ambassador, socialite and U.S. Congresswoman, representing the state of Connecticut.-Early life:...
  
   (1983)
• Senator Mike Mansfield
  Mike Mansfield
  Michael Joseph Mansfield was an American Democratic politician and the longest-serving Majority Leader of the United States Senate, serving from 1961 to 1977. He also served as United States Ambassador to Japan for over ten years...
  
   (1989)
• Senator George McGovern
  George McGovern
  George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
  
   (2000)
• Representative Robert H. Michel
  Robert H. Michel
  Robert Henry "Bob" Michel is an American Republican Party politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives for 38 years. He represented central Illinois' 18th congressional district, and was the GOP leader in Congress, serving as Minority Leader for 14 years during an era...
  
   (1994)
• Senator George J. Mitchell
  George J. Mitchell
  George John Mitchell, Jr., is the former U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace under the Obama administration. A Democrat, Mitchell was a United States Senator who served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995...
  
   (1999)
• Representative G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery
  Gillespie V. Montgomery
  Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery was an American politician from Mississippi who served in the U.S. House of Representatives 1967–1997...
  
   (2005)
• Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
  Daniel Patrick Moynihan
  Daniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan was an American politician and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected three times . He declined to run for re-election in 2000...
  
   (2000)
• Senator Ed Muskie (1981)
• Senator Gaylord Nelson
  Gaylord Nelson
  Gaylord Anton Nelson was an American politician from Wisconsin who served as a United States Senator and governor. A Democrat, he was the principal founder of Earth Day.-Public service and leadership:...
  
   (1995)
• Representative Tip O'Neill
  Tip O'Neill
  Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. was an American politician. O'Neill was an outspoken liberal Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts in Massachusetts...
  
   (1991)
• Representative Claude Pepper
  Claude Pepper
  Claude Denson Pepper was an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a spokesman for left-liberalism and the elderly. In foreign policy he shifted from pro-Soviet in the 1940s to anti-Communist in the 1950s...
  
   (1989)
• Senator Margaret Chase Smith
  Margaret Chase Smith
  Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican Senator from Maine, and one of the most successful politicians in Maine history. She was the first woman to be elected to both the U.S. House and the Senate, and the first woman from Maine to serve in either. She was also the first woman to have her name...
  
   (1989)
• Senator Strom Thurmond
  Strom Thurmond
  James Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
  
   (1993)
• Representative Mo Udall
  Mo Udall
  Morris King "Mo" Udall was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Arizona from May 2, 1961 to May 4, 1991...
  
   (1996)
• Representative Carl Vinson
  Carl Vinson
  Carl Vinson was a United States Representative from Georgia. He was a Democrat and the first person to serve for more than 50 years in the United States House of Representatives...
  
   (1964) – Awarded With Distinction

U.S. Presidents

• John F. Kennedy
  John F. Kennedy
  John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
  
   (December 6, 1963) 35th President - Posthumous award
• Lyndon B. Johnson
  Lyndon B. Johnson
  Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
  
   (June 9, 1980) 36th President - Posthumous award
• Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Reagan
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
  
   (January 13, 1993) 40th President – Awarded With Distinction
• Gerald Ford
  Gerald Ford
  Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
  
   (August 9, 1999) 38th President
• Jimmy Carter
  Jimmy Carter
  James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
  
   (August 9, 1999) 39th President
• George H. W. Bush
  George H. W. Bush
  George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
  
   (February 15, 2011) 41st President

U.S. Vice Presidents

• Nelson A. Rockefeller
  Nelson Rockefeller
  Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
  
   (January 10, 1977) 41st Vice President
• Hubert H. Humphrey
  Hubert Humphrey
  Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
  
   (June 9, 1980) 38th Vice President, Posthumous
• Dick Cheney
  Dick Cheney
  Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
  
   (July 3, 1991) Awarded for service as Secretary of Defense
  United States Secretary of Defense
  The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
  
  , subsequently served as 46th Vice President of the United States
  Vice President of the United States
  The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
  
  

Other political figures

• Eugene R. Black, Sr.
  Eugene R. Black, Sr.
  Eugene "Gene" Robert Black, Sr. was President of the World Bank from 1949 to 1963. His father, a 1930s Chairman of the Federal Reserve, also named Eugene Robert Black, did not use the "Sr." suffix; Gene's son became Eugene Robert Black, Jr.Black was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1898...
  
   (1969)
• James Brady
  James Brady
  James Scott "Jim" Brady is a former Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary under U.S. President Ronald Reagan...
  
   (1996)
• Paul Bremer (2004)
• McGeorge Bundy
  McGeorge Bundy
  McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was United States National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961 through 1966, and president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979...
  
   (1969)
• Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington
  Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington
  Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, is a British Conservative politician. He served as British Foreign Secretary between 1979 and 1982 and as the sixth Secretary General of NATO from 1984 to 1988. He is the last surviving member of the Cabinets of both Harold Macmillan and Sir...
  
   (1988)
• Leo Cherne
  Leo Cherne
  Leo Cherne was an American economist, public servant and commentator. He graduated from New York Law School in 1935.His career spanned more than fifty years...
  
   (1984)
• Javier Perez de Cuellar
  Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
  Javier Pérez de Cuéllar y de la Guerra is a Peruvian diplomat who served as the fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1, 1982 to December 31, 1991. He studied in Colegio San Agustín of Lima, and then at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. In 1995, he ran unsuccessfully...
  
   (1991)
• Arthur Flemming
  Arthur Flemming
  Arthur Sherwood Flemming was United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare between 1958 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Flemming was an important force in the shaping of Social Security policy for more than four decades. He also served as president of the University of...
  
   (1994)
• James P. Grant
  James P. Grant
  James P. "Jim" Grant was an American statesman and children's advocate. Grant served for 15 years as the third executive director of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund , with the rank of Under Secretary-General,Grant was born in Beijing as a Canadian citizen...
  
   (1994)
• Ella T. Grasso
  Ella T. Grasso
  Ella Grasso , born Ella Giovanna Oliva Tambussi, was an American politician, and first woman elected governor of Connecticut.-Biography:...
  
   (1981, posthumously)
• William J. Hopkins (1971)
• Max Kampelman
  Max Kampelman
  Max Kampelman, born Max Kampelmacher , is former head of the American delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He was born in New York...
  
   (1999)
• Robert W. Komer (1967)
• Irving Kristol
  Irving Kristol
  Irving Kristol was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism"...
  
   (2002)
• Aung San Suu Kyi
  Aung San Suu Kyi
  Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...
  
   (2000)
• Governor Herbert H. Lehman
  Herbert H. Lehman
  Herbert Henry Lehman was a Democratic Party politician from New York. He was the 45th Governor of New York from 1933 to 1942, and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1950 to 1957.-Lehman Brothers:...
  
   (December 6, 1963, Lehman died the day before the ceremony, the medal was presented to his widow on January 28, 1964)
• Eugene M. Locke
  Eugene M. Locke
  Eugene Murphy Locke was an American lawyer from Dallas, Texas and ambassador.Locke was the son of the founder of the prominent Locke and Locke law firm in Dallas. Eugene received his law degree from Yale in 1940 and served in the Soloman Islands in the Navy during World War II, before becoming a...
  
   (1967)
• John Macy
  John Macy
  John Williams Macy, Jr. was a United States Government administrator and civil servant.-Biography:Born in Chicago, he received a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1938. In 1938 Macy moved to Washington, D.C. where he began his government service and studied at American University...
  
   (1969)
• John J. McCloy
  John J. McCloy
  John Jay McCloy was a lawyer and banker who served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II, president of the World Bank and U.S. High Commissioner for Germany...
  
   (December 6, 1963) – Awarded With Distinction
• John McCone
  John McCone
  John Alexander McCone was an American businessman and politician who served as Director of Central Intelligence during the height of the Cold War.- Background :...
  
   (1987)
• George Meany
  George Meany
  William George Meany led labor union federations in the United States. As an officer of the American Federation of Labor, he represented the AFL on the National War Labor Board during World War II....
  
   (December 6, 1963)
• Jean Monnet
  Jean Monnet
  Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet was a French political economist and diplomat. He is regarded by many as a chief architect of European Unity and is regarded as one of its founding fathers...
  
   (December 6, 1963) – Awarded With Distinction
• Paul Nitze
  Paul Nitze
  Paul Henry Nitze was a high-ranking United States government official who helped shape Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations.-Early life, education, and family:...
  
   (1985)
• Norman Podhoretz
  Norman Podhoretz
  Norman B. Podhoretz is an American neoconservative pundit and writer for Commentary magazine.-Early life:The son of Julius and Helen Podhoretz, Jewish immigrants from the Central European region of Galicia, Podhoretz was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn...
  
   (2004)
• George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen
  George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen
  George Islay MacNeill Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, is a British Labour Party politician who was the tenth Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, between October 1999 and early January 2004; he succeeded Javier Solana in that position...
  
   (2003)
• Walt Rostow (1969)
• Brent Scowcroft
  Brent Scowcroft
  Brent Scowcroft, KBE was the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush and a Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force. He also served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National...
  
   (1991)
• Albert Shanker
  Albert Shanker
  Albert Shanker was President of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997.-Early life:...
  
   (1998, posthumously)
• Sargent Shriver
  Sargent Shriver
  Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., known as Sargent Shriver, R. Sargent Shriver, or, from childhood, Sarge, was an American statesman and activist. As the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he was part of the Kennedy family, serving in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations...
  
   (1994)
• Vernon Walters (1991)
• William Webster (1991)
• Simon Wiesenthal
  Simon Wiesenthal
  Simon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
  
   (2000)
• Whitney Young
  Whitney Young
  Whitney Moore Young Jr. was an American civil rights leader.He spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively fought for equitable access to...
  
   (1969)

Religion

• Cardinal Joseph Bernardin (1996)
• Cardinal Terence Cooke (1984, posthumously)
• Sister M. Isolina Ferré
  Isolina Ferré
  Isolina Ferré Aguayo was a Puerto Rican Roman Catholic nun. Known as the "Mother Teresa of Puerto Rico", she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her humanitarian work....
  
   (August 11, 1999)
• Dr. Billy Graham
  Billy Graham
  William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
  
   (1983)
• Gordon B. Hinckley
  Gordon B. Hinckley
  Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death...
  
   (June 23, 2004)
• Archbishop Iakovos of America (1980)
• Reinhold Niebuhr
  Reinhold Niebuhr
  Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
  
   (1964)
• Pope John XXIII
  Pope John XXIII
  -Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
  
   (December 6, 1963, posthumously)
• Pope John Paul II
  Pope John Paul II
  Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
  
   (June 4, 2004)
• Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
  Norman Vincent Peale
  Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was a minister and author and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking".-Early life and education:...
  
   (March 26, 1984)
• Reverend Gardner C. Taylor
  Gardner C. Taylor
  Dr. Gardner Calvin Taylor is an American preacher, noted for his eloquence and deep understanding of Christian faith and theology and known as "the dean of American preaching".Taylor was a close friend and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr...
  
   (August 9, 2000)
• Mother Teresa
  Mother Teresa
  Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
  
   (1985)
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu (August 12, 2009)

Science

• John Bardeen
  John Bardeen
  John Bardeen was an American physicist and electrical engineer, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a...
  
   (1977)
• Rachel Carson
  Rachel Carson
  Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
  
   (1980, posthumously)
• Francis Collins
  Francis Collins
  Francis Collins may refer to:*Francis Collins , geneticist*Francis Dolan Collins , 19th century American politician-See also:*Frank Collins *Francis Collings, BBC journalist*Francis Collin, English footballer...
  
   (2007)
• Jacques-Yves Cousteau
  Jacques-Yves Cousteau
  Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water...
  
   (1985)
• Stephen Hawking
  Stephen Hawking
  Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
  
   (2009)
• Clarence Johnson
  Clarence Johnson
  Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson was an aircraft engineer and aeronautical innovator. As a member and first team leader of the Lockheed Skunk Works, Johnson worked for more than four decades and is said to have been an "organizing genius"...
  
   (1964)
• Mathilde Krim
  Mathilde Krim
  Mathilde Krim, Ph.D. is the founding chairman of amfAR, an association for AIDS research.-Biography:Krim received her Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1953...
  
   (2000)
• Joshua Lederberg
  Joshua Lederberg
  Joshua Lederberg ForMemRS was an American molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. He was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and...
  
   (2006)
• George Low
  George Low
  George Michael Low, born George Wilhelm Low was a NASA administrator and 14th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was born near Vienna, Austria to Artur and Gertrude Burger Low, small business people in Austria...
  
   (1985, posthumously)
• Margaret Mead
  Margaret Mead
  Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
  
   (1979, posthumously)
• Lewis Mumford
  Lewis Mumford
  Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
  
   (1964)
• Simon Ramo
  Simon Ramo
  Simon "Si" Ramo is an American physicist, engineer, and business leader. He led development of microwave and missile technology and is sometimes known as the father of the intercontinental ballistic missile...
  
   (1983)
• Edward Teller
  Edward Teller
  Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy , and surface physics...
  
   (2003)
• Alan Tower Waterman
  Alan Tower Waterman
  Alan Tower Waterman was an American physicist.Born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, he grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts. His father was a professor of physics at Smith College. Alan also became a physicist, doing his undergraduate and doctoral work at Princeton University, from which he...
  
   (1963)
• James D. Watson
  James D. Watson
  James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
  
   (1977)

Space exploration

• Apollo 11
  Apollo 11
  In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
  
   Astronauts
  • Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1969) – Awarded With Distinction
  • Neil Armstrong
    Neil Armstrong
    Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
    
     (1969) – Awarded With Distinction
  • Michael Collins
    Michael Collins (astronaut)
    Michael Collins is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, in which he and command pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins...
    
     (1969) – Awarded With Distinction
• Apollo 13
  Apollo 13
  Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
  
   Astronauts
  • Fred Haise
    Fred Haise
    Fred Wallace Haise, Jr. is an engineer and former NASA astronaut. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. Having flown on Apollo 13, Haise was to be the sixth human to walk on the Moon, but the mission did not land due to a failure aboard the spacecraft.-Early life and...
    
     (1970)
  • Jim Lovell
    Jim Lovell
    James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission...
    
     (1970)
  • Jack Swigert
    Jack Swigert
    He later became staff director of the Committee on Science and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives.Swigert was elected as a Republican to Colorado's newly created 6th congressional district in November 1982. He defeated Democrat Steve Hogan, 98,909 votes to 56,518...
    
     (1970)
• George Abbey
  George Abbey
  George William Samuel Abbey is a former director of the Johnson Space Center and Fellow in Space Policy at the Baker Institute of Rice University.-Biography:Born in Seattle, Washington, Abbey attended Lincoln High School there...
  
   (1970)
• Gerald D. Griffin
  Gerald D. Griffin
  Gerald D. "Gerry" Griffin is a former a NASA flight director and director of Johnson Space Center.Born in Athens, Texas, Griffin attended Texas A&M University, where he studied aeronautical engineering. He joined NASA in 1960 and became a flight controller, specializing in guidance and navigation...
  
   (1970)
• Gene Kranz
  Gene Kranz
  Kranz's book, titled Failure Is Not an Option, published five years after the movie, stated, "...a creed that we all lived by: "Failure is not an option."" . The book has three index references for the phrase, but none of those give any indication of the phrase being apocryphal...
  
   (1970)
• Glynn Lunney
  Glynn Lunney
  Glynn S. Lunney is a retired NASA engineer. An employee of NASA since its foundation in 1958, Lunney was a flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13 crisis...
  
   (1970)
• Edgar Mitchell (1970)
• Siguard A. Sjoberg (1970)
• Milton L. Windler (1970)

Sports

• Hank Aaron (2002)
• Muhammad Ali
  Muhammad Ali
  Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
  
   (2005)
• Arthur Ashe
  Arthur Ashe
  Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was a professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States...
  
   (1993, posthumously)
• Earl Blaik
  Earl Blaik
  Earl Henry "Red" Blaik was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and United States Army officer. He served as the head football coach at Dartmouth College from 1934 to 1940 and at the United States Military Academy from 1941 to 1958, compiling a career college...
  
   (1986)
• Paul "Bear" Bryant
  Bear Bryant
  Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships...
  
   (1983, posthumously)
• Roberto Clemente
  Roberto Clemente
  Roberto Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican Major League Baseball right fielder. He was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the youngest of seven children. Clemente played his entire 18-year baseball career with the Pittsburgh Pirates . He was awarded the National League's Most Valuable Player Award in...
  
   (2003, posthumously)
• Joe DiMaggio
  Joe DiMaggio
  Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
  
   (1977)
• Billie Jean King
  Billie Jean King
  Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King has been an advocate against sexism in sports and society...
  
   (2009)
• Robert J. H. Kiphuth
  Robert J. H. Kiphuth
  Robert John Herman Kiphuth was born in Tonawanda, New York and is best known for his 42-year career as head coach of the Yale University men's swim team, from 1917-1959...
  
   (1963)
• Stan Musial
  Stan Musial
  Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial is a retired professional baseball player who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals . Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial was a record 24-time All-Star selection , and is widely considered to be one of the greatest hitters in baseball...
  
   (2011)
• Jack Nicklaus
  Jack Nicklaus
  Jack William Nicklaus , nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. He won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time. In addition to his 18 Majors, he was runner-up a...
  
   (2005)
• Buck O'Neil
  Buck O'Neil
  John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil was a first baseman and manager in the Negro American League, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs. After his playing days, he worked as a scout, and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball...
  
   (2006)
• Jesse Owens
  Jesse Owens
  James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
  
   (1977)
• Arnold Palmer
  Arnold Palmer
  Arnold Daniel Palmer is an American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955...
  
   (2004)
• Richard Petty
  Richard Petty
  Richard Lee Petty is a former NASCAR driver who raced in the Strictly Stock/Grand National Era and the NASCAR Winston Cup Series...
  
   (1992)
• Frank Robinson
  Frank Robinson
  Frank Robinson , is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. He played from 1956–1976, most notably for the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles. He is the only player to win league MVP honors in both the National and American Leagues...
  
   (2005)
• Jackie Robinson
  Jackie Robinson
  Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
  
   (March 26, 1984, posthumously)
• Bill Russell
  Bill Russell
  William Felton "Bill" Russell is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association...
  
   (2011)
• Ted Williams
  Ted Williams
  Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...
  
   (1991)
• John Wooden
  John Wooden
  John Robert Wooden was an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row — as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games...
  
   (2003)

External links

• Executive Order 11085 The Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Order re-establishing the Medal, from the website of the John F. Kennedy Library
  John F. Kennedy Library
  The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. It is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, next to the Boston campus of the University of...
  
  
• Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients By Year, 1945–2004
• Chronological List of Medal of Freedom Awards, 1963–1993
• Web.archive.org, Awarded With Distinction.
• President Obama Names Medal of Freedom Recipients, 2009
• The Political Graveyard: Politicians Who Received the Medal of Freedom (also known as the "Presidential Medal of Freedom")

Offline materials

– contains a list of awardees from 1963 to approximately 1995.