August 18, 2009

Medal of Freedom to Edward M. Kennedy, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, others

President Obama confers the Medal of Freedom on Senator Kennedy, Archbishop Tutu, and others.

President Barack Obama J.D.’91 conferred the Medal of Freedom on 16 people at a White House ceremony on August 12, among them:

U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy ’54, LL.D.’08 (who was represented by his children, as he continued to fight brain cancer and mourned the death of his sister Eunice Shriver; his Harvard honorary degree was conferred in a special ceremony last fall);
former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was awarded the Radcliffe Institute Medal last June;
former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, LL.M. ’68, LL.D. ’98, the 1998 Commencement speaker;
University of Chicago geneticist and cancer specialist Janet Davison Rowley, S.D.’08, recognized at Commencement in 2008; and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, LL.D. ’79 the anti-apartheid leader who served as a Harvard Overseer.

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