State honors: the Sagamore of the Wabash, a documented sample

The 1940s — 2019

The honor and its limit: Indiana's highest civilian honor is the Sagamore of the Wabash, created in the 1940s under Governor Ralph Gates and given by each governor, on his own judgment, ever since. The state publishes no complete roster — each governor's awards are his own — so no honest count of this city's Sagamores exists, and this entry is a sample of the documented ones, offered as a sample and at survey size, in the order they were given.

The sample: Jesse L. Dickinson, the South Bend legislator who served six terms in the Indiana House and two in the Senate and ran the South Bend Housing Authority from 1958 to 1972, was named a Sagamore by Governor Matthew Welsh. Rabbi Morley Feinstein, of Temple Beth-El in South Bend, received the award from Governor Frank O'Bannon, in the same years the mayors of South Bend and Mishawaka were giving him their cities' keys. Cheryl Heim Little, an IU South Bend alumna who chaired the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, received hers from Governor O'Bannon in 2003. Paul Mainieri, Notre Dame's baseball coach, received his from outgoing Governor Joe Kernan in January 2005 — a seated-here honor at the Notre Dame boundary. Tsung Yeh, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra's music director from 1988 to 2016, was presented the Sagamore at his retirement in 2016. And John Affleck-Graves, Notre Dame's executive vice president, received it on 4 June 2019 at the university's President's Community Breakfast, the same morning South Bend, Mishawaka, and St. Joseph County gave him their keys. The city's governors'-honor roll is longer than any list this section can verify name by name; these are the ones the public record documents, and the entry says no more than that.

Sources:

1. Indiana Historical Society, Jesse L. Dickinson Collection guide — the Sagamore of the Wabash from Governor Matthew Welsh; the House and Senate terms and the Housing Authority directorship.
2. Shalom Hartman Institute, biography of Rabbi Morley Feinstein — the Sagamore from Governor Frank O'Bannon; Temple Beth-El, South Bend.
3. Indiana University alumni magazine (Foundations, Spring–Summer 2011) — Cheryl Heim Little's Sagamore from Governor O'Bannon, 2003.
4. University of Notre Dame baseball media notes, 2005 — Paul Mainieri's Sagamore from Governor Joe Kernan, January 2005.
5. Singapore Chinese Orchestra / NCPA biography of Tsung Yeh — the Sagamore of the Wabash presented at his South Bend Symphony retirement, 2016; Notre Dame News, 5 June 2019 — John Affleck-Graves's award of 4 June 2019, and the award's creation under Governor Ralph Gates in the 1940s.