The Congressional Gold Medal: Hesburgh again, thirty-six years on

13 July 2000

The honor: Congress voted Father Hesburgh its own highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, and President Bill Clinton presented it to him in the Rotunda of the Capitol on 13 July 2000, in recognition — the authorizing act's words — of his "outstanding and enduring contributions to civil rights, higher education, the Catholic Church, the Nation, and the global community." Notre Dame's obituary records the distinction the university claims for the award: he was the first person from higher education ever to receive it. With it Hesburgh held both of the nation's two highest civilian honors, the presidential medal of 1964 and the congressional medal of 2000, a pairing very few Americans share.

A conflict in the record, resolved: Reference works date Hesburgh's Congressional Gold Medal two ways — 1999 and 2000 — and both dates are real, attached to different acts. The Father Theodore M. Hesburgh Congressional Gold Medal Act (H.R. 1932) is Congress's work of 1999; the medal itself was struck under that act and presented on 13 July 2000. Sources giving 1999 are dating the authorization; the presentation, which is the honor's date in this ledger, is 2000. The Congressional Record adds one more national honor to his line: the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal for Freedom of Worship. His 150-plus honorary degrees — the largest number held by any one person, in the university's account — are the university's own record and stand in the boundary paragraph closing this section.

Sources:

1. The White House (Clinton administration), remarks at the Gold Medal ceremony for Father Hesburgh, 13 July 2000, the Capitol Rotunda; Public Papers of the Presidents, 2000, Book II.
2. Father Theodore M. Hesburgh Congressional Gold Medal Act, H.R. 1932, 106th Congress (1999) — the authorization and its findings.
3. Congressional Record, 27 June 2000 — the Rotunda ceremony arrangements; the Four Freedoms Medal among his awards.
4. University of Notre Dame obituary, 27 February 2015 — "the first person from higher education to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal," presented July 2000.