WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will recognize the accomplishments of actors, activists, athletes and the world’s foremost living theoretical physicist on Wednesday when he awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 people.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will recognize the accomplishments of actors, activists, athletes and the world’s foremost living theoretical physicist on Wednesday when he awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 people. Among recipients of the United States’ highest honor for a civilian will be Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge University physicist and mathematician known for his work on black holes; former Irish President and one-time U.N. human rights commissioner Mary Robinson, and retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Other honorees include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, a leader in global anti-poverty efforts who pioneered providing "microloans" to provide credit to poor people who lack collateral. Film star Sidney Poitier, civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph Lowery and tennis legend Billie Jean King were also among those to receive the medal as well as Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has been battling brain cancer, and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Kennedy will remain on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, following the death Tuesday of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, but the senator’s spokesman said his children will attend the ceremony and his daughter, Kara, will accept the award on his behalf. Obama, awarding his first presidential medals, also will make posthumous awards to former Republican Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, the football quarterback-turned-politician who died in May, and gay rights activist and San Francisco, California, politician Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978. The recipients have diverse backgrounds and achievements in fields ranging from sports and art to science and medicine to politics and public policy. The White House has said the individuals were selected for their work as "agents of change." President Harry S. Truman established the Medal of Freedom in 1945 to recognize civilians for their efforts during World War II. President John F. Kennedy reinstated the medal in 1963 to honor distinguished service. Other recipients are: —Joe Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief, who fought in World War II wearing war paint beneath his uniform —Chita Rivera, an actor, singer, dancer and winner of two Tony Awards for Broadway roles — Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a leading breast cancer grassroots organization — Dr. Pedro Jose Greer Jr., assistant dean of academic affairs at Florida International University School of Medicine — Dr. Janet Davison Rowley, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago ______ In photo: In this Nov. 21, 2008 file photo, South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu speaks at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, FILE)
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