Harkening back to what now seems like a gentler time, The General R. Ford Presidential Foundation bestowed its medal for Distinguished Public Service, to former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill.

O'Neill was appointed the 72nd secretary of the Treasury Department in 2001 by President George W. Bush. O'Neill started his career in government service under President John F. Kennedy and continued working under Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Ford. Under the former administrations, he acted as a computer systems analyst from 1961-1967 for the U.S. Veterans Administration and as a staff member and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1967-1977. After working with the OMB, O’Neill left the government to pursue business interests in the private sector. O'Neill came to the Treasury Department following several years of experience as chairman and CEO of aluminum giant Alcoa. - Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation

The Ford Medal has been awarded annually since 2003. The list of recipients reads like a who's who of Washington movers and shakers for over the past half century. The Foundations says "previous recipients include: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan (2003), Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (2004), first lady Betty Ford (2005), the men and women of the Armed Forces (2006), Congressman Lee Hamilton and Secretary of State James Baker (2007), Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Carla Hills (2008), Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (2009), Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger (2010), Secretary of Transportation William T. Coleman (2011), Senator Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill (2012), Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft (2013), Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh Jr. (2014), Senator Carl Levin and  Congressman John Dingell (2015), President George H.W. Bush (2016), President Jimmy Carter (2017), and Senator John W. Warner (2018)."

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