List of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

This is a partial list of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, listed chronologically within the aspect of life in which each recipient is or was renowned.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded by the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President for award of the Medal or any person selected by the President upon his own initiative".^[1] Before 1970, honorees were either selected by the president or recommended to them by the Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board.^[2]

History

Typically the medal is bestowed upon the recipient by the sitting president who has chosen them. However, the first recipients selected by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination were formally awarded by his successor in office, Lyndon B. Johnson.^[3]

President Barack Obama awarded 118 medals, the most of any president, followed by President Bill Clinton with 89 medal recipients.^[4] Two people, Ellsworth Bunker and Colin Powell, are two-time recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Colin Powell received his second award with Distinction,^[5] while Ellsworth Bunker was given both of his awards with Distinction.

Eight Presidents have themselves received the medal either posthumously, post-presidency, or prior to being elected:

• John F. Kennedy (1963, posthumously)
• Lyndon B. Johnson (1980, posthumously)
• Ronald Reagan (1993, with Distinction)
• Gerald Ford (1999)
• Jimmy Carter (1999)
• George H. W. Bush (2011)
• Bill Clinton (2013)
• Joe Biden (2017, as Vice President; with Distinction)

In 2015, President Barack Obama stated that there was no precedent to revoke a Presidential Medal of Freedom, regarding the award given to stand-up comedian and actor Bill Cosby.^[6] After being awarded the medal, Cosby was convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault, though the convictions were later overturned.^[7]

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is related to, but distinct from, the Medal of Freedom, an earlier award issued between 1945 and 1963 to honor US civilian contributions to World War II.

In 2022 at the age of 25, athlete and activist Simone Biles became the youngest person to receive the award.^[8]

Declinations of the award

Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, was offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump, and initially accepted it, but changed his mind and turned down the medal after the January 6 United States Capitol attack.^[9]

Country musician Dolly Parton turned down the medal twice from Donald Trump. Parton said she turned it down the first time because her husband was ill, and the second time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[10]

Awarded with Distinction

The Presidential Medal of Freedom (with Distinction) As of January 21, 2025, 27 individuals (Ellsworth Bunker twice, which is a total of 28 WDs) have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (with Distinction):[11] John F. Kennedy – 8 James B. Conant Robert A. Lovett Luis Muñoz Marín John J. McCloy Jean Monnet Ralph Bunche Felix Frankfurter Ellsworth Bunker – (first WD) Lyndon B. Johnson – 6 Edward R. Murrow Dean Acheson Carl Vinson Ellsworth Bunker – (second WD) Clark Clifford Dean Rusk Richard Nixon – 4 Buzz Aldrin Neil Armstrong Michael Collins W. Averell Harriman Gerald Ford – 4 Martha Graham Arthur Rubinstein David K. E. Bruce Donald Rumsfeld Jimmy Carter – 0   0 – (none) Ronald Reagan – 1 Caspar Weinberger George H. W. Bush – 1 Ronald Reagan Bill Clinton – 1 Colin Powell George W. Bush – 1 Pope John Paul II Barack Obama – 1 Joe Biden Donald Trump – 0   0 – (none) Joe Biden – 1 Pope Francis Donald Trump – ?   0 – (so far)

List

• † – Awarded posthumously
• WD – Awarded "with Distinction"

Awarded by John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy selected 31 recipients to be awarded in 1963. After his assassination they were officially awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Marian Anderson	1963		Classical Contralto & First African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera	[12]
Ralph Bunche		WD	Political Scientist, Mediator in Israel & First person of African descent to receive a Nobel Prize	[3][11]
Ellsworth Bunker		WD	U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, Italy and India	[3][11]
Pablo Casals			Cellist	[13]
Genevieve Caulfield			Founder of the Bangkok School for the Blind in Thailand
James B. Conant		WD	Chemist, 23rd President of Harvard University & 1st U.S. Ambassador to West Germany	[11]
John Franklin Enders			Biomedical Scientist & Developer of the Measles Vaccine
Felix Frankfurter		WD	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States	[3][11]
Karl Holton			Head of the Los Angeles County Probation Department & Director of the California Youth Authority	[14]
Robert J. H. Kiphuth			Head Coach for Men's Swimming at Yale University
Edwin H. Land			Co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation & Inventor of the Polaroid Instant Camera
Herbert H. Lehman		[a]	United States Senator from New York & 45th Governor of New York
Robert A. Lovett		WD	4th United States Secretary of Defense	[11]
J. Clifford MacDonald			Philanthropist & President of the Arc of the United States
John J. McCloy		WD	United States Assistant Secretary of War & U.S. High Commissioner For Occupied Germany	[11]
George Meany			1st President of AFL-CIO	[3]
Alexander Meiklejohn			Philosopher & President of Amherst College
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe			Architect	[3]
Jean Monnet		WD	Entrepreneur & Founding Father of the European Union	[11]
Luis Muñoz Marín		WD	1st Elected Governor of Puerto Rico	[11]
Clarence B. Randall			Chairman of The Board of Inland Steel Company & Presidential Advisor	[16]
Rudolf Serkin			Pianist
Edward Steichen			Photographer
George W. Taylor			Professor of Industrial Relations at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Alan Tower Waterman			1st Director of the National Science Foundation
Mark S. Watson			Editor and Correspondent for The Baltimore Sun	[14]
Annie Dodge Wauneka			Member of the Navajo Nation Council	[17]
E. B. White			Writer
Thornton Wilder			3x Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright & Novelist
Edmund Wilson			Writer & Literary Critic
Andrew Wyeth			Realist and Regionalist Painter & Visual Artist

Awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson awarded 58 medals between 1963 and 1969, excluding 31 which were selected by John F. Kennedy.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
John XXIII	1963	†	Pope	[14]
John F. Kennedy		†	35th President of the United States	[18]
Dean Acheson	1964	WD	51st United States Secretary of State	[11]
Detlev Bronk			6th President of Johns Hopkins University, 16th President of the National Academy of Sciences & 3rd President of Rockefeller University
Aaron Copland			Classical Composer
Willem de Kooning			Abstract Expressionist Artist	[19]
Walt Disney			Co-founder and President of The Walt Disney Company	[20]
J. Frank Dobie			Folklorist
Lena Frances Edwards			Physician & Medical Advisor to the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs
T. S. Eliot			Modernist Poet
Lynn Fontanne			Actress	[20]
John W. Gardner			6th United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
Theodore Hesburgh			Ordained Priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross & 15th President of University of Notre Dame
Clarence Johnson			Aeronautical and Systems Engineer & Contributing Designer to the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird
Frederick Kappel			9th President of Western Electric & Chairman of AT&T
Helen Keller			Disability Rights Advocate, Human Rights Activist & Member of the American Foundation for the Blind
John L. Lewis			9th President of the United Mine Workers & 1st President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Walter Lippmann			Founding Editor of New Republic & Political Commentator
Alfred Lunt			Actor & Director	[20]
Ralph McGill			Editor of the Atlanta Constitution & Anti-Segregationist
Samuel Eliot Morison			Maritime Historian
Lewis Mumford			Historian, Sociologist & Philosopher of Technology
Edward R. Murrow		WD	Broadcast Journalist & WWII War Correspondent	[11]
Reinhold Niebuhr			Reformed Theologian, Ethicist & Professor at Union Theological Seminary
Leontyne Price			Soprano & First African-American Soprano to Achieve International Acclaim
A. Philip Randolph			Founder and President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Carl Sandburg			3x Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet
John Steinbeck			Nobel Prize Winning Writer
Helen B. Taussig			Cardiologist, Founder of Pediatric Cardiology & Co-developer of the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt Surgical Procedure
Carl Vinson		WD	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & Father of the Two-Ocean Navy	[11]
Thomas Watson Jr.			President of the International Business Machines Corporation
Paul Dudley White			Presidential Physician to Dwight D. Eisenhower & Co-founder of the American Heart Association
Ellsworth Bunker	1967	WD	U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States and South Vietnam	[11]
Robert Komer			3rd Deputy National Security Advisor & U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
Eugene M. Locke			U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan & South Vietnam
Robert McNamara	1968		8th United States Secretary of Defense
James E. Webb			2nd Administrator of NASA	[21]
Eugene R. Black Sr.	1969		3rd President of the World Bank Group
McGeorge Bundy			5th United States National Security Advisor
Clark Clifford		WD	9th United States Secretary of Defense & Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board	[11]
Michael DeBakey			Chairman of the Department of Surgery, President, and Chancellor of Baylor College of Medicine at the Texas Medical Center
David Dubinsky			President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
Ralph Ellison			Writer & Literary Critic
Henry Ford II			President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Ford Motor Company
Bob Hope			Comedian & Vaudevillian	[22]
Edgar Kaiser			Member of the Committee on Urban Housing & General Manager of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation
Mary Lasker			Philanthropist & Founder of the Lasker Foundation
John Macy			President of the United States Civil Service Commission
Gregory Peck			Actor & Humanitarian
Laurance Rockefeller			Conservationist & Philanthropist
Dean Rusk		WD	54th United States Secretary of State	[11]
Walt Whitman Rostow			6th United States National Security Advisor
Merriman Smith			White House Correspondent for United Press International & Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist	[23]
Cyrus Vance			7th United States Secretary of the Army & 11th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
William S. White			Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist for the United Feature Syndicate
Roy Wilkins			Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People	[23]
Whitney Young			Civil Rights Leader & Member of the National Urban League

Awarded by Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon awarded 28 medals between 1969 and 1974.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Buzz Aldrin	1969	WD	Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 11 Crew Member	[11]
Neil Armstrong		WD	Astronaut, Aeronautical Engineer & Apollo 11 Crew Member	[24][11]
Michael Collins		WD	Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 11 Crew Member	[24][11]
Duke Ellington			Jazz Pianist & Composer
W. Averell Harriman		WD	48th Governor of New York & 11th United States Secretary of Commerce	[11]
Earl Charles Behrens	1970		Political Editor for the San Francisco Chronicle	[25]
Edward T. Folliard			Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist for The Washington Post
Fred Haise			Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 13 Crew Member	[26]
William Henry			Journalist & Daily Columnist for the Los Angeles Times	[25]
Arthur Krock			3x Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist for The New York Times	[25]
David Lawrence			Founder of U.S. News & World Report	[25]
G. Gould Lincoln			Political Reporter for The Washington Evening Star	[25]
Jim Lovell			Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 8 Crew Member	[26]
Mission Operations Team				[27]
Raymond Moley			Political Economist, Presidential Advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt & Columnist for Newsweek & National Review	[25]
Eugene Ormandy			Violinist, Conductor & Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Adela Rogers St. Johns			Journalist for Photoplay Magazine	[25]
Jack Swigert			Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 13 Crew Member	[26]
Manlio Brosio	1971		4th Secretary General of NATO
Samuel Goldwyn			Film Producer & Founder of Goldwyn Pictures & Samuel Goldwyn Productions
William J. Hopkins			Executive Clerk of the White House
John Paul Vann	1972	†	Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Army & Member of the United States Agency for International Development
Lila Acheson Wallace			Philanthropist & Co-founder of Reader's Digest
DeWitt Wallace			Co-founder of Reader's Digest
John Ford	1973		Film Director, Naval Officer & Head of the Photography Unit of the Office of Strategic Services
William P. Rogers			63rd United States Attorney General & 55th United States Secretary of State
Paul G. Hoffman	1974		1st Administrator of the Economic Cooperation Administration & 1st Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
Melvin Laird			10th United States Secretary of Defense & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Charles Lowman			Orthopedic Surgeon & Founder of California's First Orthopedic Hospital	[28]

Awarded by Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford awarded 28 medals between 1974 and 1977.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
David K. E. Bruce	1976	WD	U.S. Ambassador to France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the People's Republic of China & NATO	[11]
Martha Graham		WD	Modern Dancer, Choreographer & Inventor of the Graham Technique	[29][11]
Jesse Owens			Olympic Track and Field Athlete	[30]
Arthur Rubinstein		WD	Classical Pianist	[31][11]
Iorwith Wilbur Abel	1977		3rd President of the United Steelworkers
John Bardeen			2x Nobel Prize Winning Physicist & Engineer
Irving Berlin			Composer & Songwriter	[31]
Norman Borlaug			Nobel Prize Winning Agronomist & Leader of the Green Revolution
Omar Bradley			Senior Officer of the United States Army & 1st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff	[31]
Arleigh Burke			Admiral of the United States Navy & Chief of Naval Operations
Alexander Calder		†	Mobiles Sculptor	[32]
Bruce Catton			Pulitzer Prize Winning Popular Historian of the American Civil War
Joe DiMaggio			Professional Baseball Player	[31]
Ariel Durant			Pulitzer Prize Winning Researcher & Writer
Will Durant			Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian & Philosopher	[32]
Arthur Fiedler			Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra	[31]
Henry Friendly			Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Lady Bird Johnson			First Lady of the United States	[33]
Henry Kissinger		WD	56th United States Secretary of State & 7th United States National Security Advisor	[34]
Archibald MacLeish			Modernist Poet, 9th Librarian of Congress & 1st Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs	[32]
James A. Michener			Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer & Philanthropist	[32]
Georgia O'Keeffe			Modernist Artist & Painter	[35]
Nelson Rockefeller			41st Vice President of the United States & 49th Governor of New York	[32]
Norman Rockwell			Painter & Illustrator	[32]
Donald Rumsfeld		WD	13th United States Secretary of Defense & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	[11]
Catherine Filene Shouse			Philanthropist, Member of the Women's Division of the U.S. Employment Service of the Department of Labor & First Woman appointed to the Democratic National Committee
Lowell Thomas			Writer, Broadcaster & Leading Investor of Capital Cities Television Corporation	[32]
James Watson			Nobel Prize Winning Molecular Biologist & Geneticist who Co-developed the Double Helix Structure Theory for the DNA Molecule

Awarded by Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter awarded 34 medals between 1977 and 1981.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Martin Luther King Jr.	1977	†	Baptist Minister, Prominent Leader in the Civil Rights Movement & 1st President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Jonas Salk			Virologist & Developer of the Polio Vaccine
Arthur Goldberg	1978		9th United States Secretary of Labor, 6th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations & Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Margaret Mead	1979	†	Cultural Anthropologist & President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science	[36]
Ansel Adams	1980		Landscape Photographer & Environmentalist	[37]
Horace M. Albright			2nd Director of the National Park Service & Conservationist	[38]
Rachel Carson		†	Marine Biologist, Conservationist & Leader in the Global Environmental Movement	[37]
Lucia Chase			Ballet Director, Dancer & Co-founder of the American Ballet Theatre	[37]
Hubert Humphrey		†	38th Vice President of the United States & United States Senator from Minnesota	[37]
Iakovos			Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America & Civil Rights Activist	[37]
Lyndon B. Johnson		†	36th President of the United States	[37]
Clarence Mitchell Jr.			Civil Rights Activist & Chief Lobbyist and National Director for NAACP	[37]
Roger Tory Peterson			Naturalist, Ornithologist & One of the Founding Inspiration of the Environmental Movement	[37]
Hyman G. Rickover			Admiral in the U.S. Navy & Director of the U.S. Naval Reactors Office	[37]
Beverly Sills			Operatic Soprano	[37]
Robert Penn Warren			Poet, Literary Critic, Co-founder of New Criticism & Charter Member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers	[37]
John Wayne		†	Actor	[37]
Eudora Welty			Pulitzer Prize Winning Novelist & Short Story Writer	[37]
Tennessee Williams			Playwright & Screenwriter	[37]
Roger Nash Baldwin	1981		Co-founder and 1st Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union	[39]
Harold Brown			14th United States Secretary of Defense
Zbigniew Brzezinski			9th United States National Security Advisor	[39]
Warren Christopher			5th United States Deputy Secretary of State & 9th United States Deputy Attorney General
Walter Cronkite			Broadcast Journalist & Anchorman for CBS Evening News	[39]
Kirk Douglas			Actor & Philanthropist	[39]
Margaret McNamara			Founder of Reading Is Fundamental	[39]
Karl Menninger			Psychiatrist & Co-founder of the Menninger Foundation and Menninger Clinic
Edmund Muskie			58th United States Secretary of State & United States Senator from Maine
Esther Peterson			2nd Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs & 4th Director of the United States Women's Bureau	[39]
Gerard C. Smith			Chief U.S. Delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks & 1st U.S. Chairman of the Trilateral Commission	[39]
Robert S. Strauss			6th United States Trade Representative & United States Special Envoy for the Middle East	[39]
Elbert Tuttle			Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit	[39]
Earl Warren		†	14th Chief Justice of the United States	[39]
Andrew Young			Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	[39]

Awarded by Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan awarded 86 medals between 1981 and 1989.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Eubie Blake	1981		Jazz Pianist & Composer	[40]
Ella Grasso		†	83rd Governor of Connecticut & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Bryce Harlow			Counselor to the President
Walter Judd			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Morris I. Leibman			Civilian Aide-At-Large to the United States Army & Partner at Sidley Austin
Tex Thornton			Founder of Litton Industries
Philip Habib	1982		9th Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs & 9th U.S. Ambassador to Korea
Kate Smith			Classical Contralto
George Balanchine	1983		Ballet Choreographer & Co-founder of the New York City Ballet	[41]
Clare Boothe Luce			U.S. Ambassador to Italy & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	[31]
Bear Bryant		†	College Football Player & Head Coach of the University of Alabama Football Team
James Burnham			Political Theorist, Philosopher, Chair of the Philosophy Department at New York University & Leader of the American Conservative Movement	[31]
James E. Cheek			President of Howard University
Buckminster Fuller			Architect, Systems Theorist, Inventor, Philosopher & Futurist	[42]
Billy Graham			Evangelist, Ordained Southern Baptist Minister & President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Eric Hoffer			Moral and Social Philosopher
Jacob Javits			United States Senator from New York & 58th Attorney General of New York	[31]
Dumas Malone			Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian & Biographer
Mabel Mercer			Cabaret Singer
Simon Ramo			Engineer considered to be the Father of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
Howard Baker	1984		United States Senator from Tennessee	[43]
James Cagney			Actor, Dancer & 6th President of the Screen Actors Guild	[43]
Whittaker Chambers		†	Journalist for Time Magazine, Senior Editor at National Review & Key Witness against the Ware Group during the Hiss Case for Perjury	[44][45]
Leo Cherne			Head of the International Rescue Committee & Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board	[31]
Terence Cooke		†	Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church & Archbishop of New York
Denton Cooley			Heart and Cardiothoracic Surgeon & Founder and Surgeon-In-Chief of The Texas Heart Institute who performed the first Artificial Heart Implantation	[43]
Tennessee Ernie Ford			Country and Western Singer	[43]
Héctor García			Physician, World War II Veteran, Civil Rights Advocate & Founder of the American GI Forum	[43]
Andrew Goodpaster			United States Army General, Supreme Allied Commander Europe & Commander in Chief of the United States European Command	[46]
Henry M. Jackson		†	United States Senator from Washington & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Lincoln Kirstein			Writer, Impresario, Philanthropist & Co-founder of the New York City Ballet	[43]
Louis L'Amour			Novelist & Short Story Writer	[43]
Joseph Luns			5th Secretary General of NATO & Minister of Foreign Affairs
Norman Vincent Peale			Protestant Clergyman, Pastor of Marble Collegiate Church, New York & Author who popularized the concept of Positive Thinking	[43]
Jackie Robinson		†	Professional Baseball Player & Civil Rights Advocate	[43]
Carlos P. Romulo			President of the United Nations General Assembly & Co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines
Anwar el-Sadat		†	3rd President of Egypt	[47]
Eunice Kennedy Shriver			Philanthropist & Founder of the Special Olympics	[43]
Count Basie	1985	†	Jazz Pianist, Composer & Bandleader of the Count Basie Orchestra
Albert Coady Wedemeyer			United States Army Commander, General & Member of the War Planning Board which formulated plans for the Invasion of Normandy during World War II
Jacques Cousteau			French Naval Officer, Oceanographer & Co-Inventor of the Aqua-Lung
Jerome H. Holland		†	President of Delaware State College, 9th President of Hampton University & U.S. Ambassador to Sweden
Sidney Hook			Philosopher of the Pragmatist School	[31]
Jeane Kirkpatrick			16th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
George Low		†	14th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute & 4th Deputy Administrator of NASA
Paul Nitze			12th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense & 58th United States Secretary of the Navy
Frank Reynolds		†	Television Journalist for CBS and ABC News
Frank Sinatra			Singer & Actor
James Stewart			Actor & Brigadier General
Mother Teresa			Catholic Nun, Humanitarian & Founder of the Missionaries of Charity
Albert Wohlstetter			Political Scientist influential to the U.S. Nuclear Strategy during the Cold War
Roberta Wohlstetter			Historian of American Military Intelligence
Chuck Yeager			United States Air Force Officer, Flying Ace & Record-Setting Test Pilot who was the First Confirmed Pilot in History to Exceed the Speed of Sound during Flight
Walter Annenberg	1986		Businessman, Philanthropist, Owner of Triangle Publications & U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Earl Blaik			American Football Player & Head Coach at Dartmouth College and the United States Military Academy
Barry Goldwater			United States Senator from Arizona & United States Air Force Officer
Helen Hayes			Actress
Vladimir Horowitz			Classical Pianist & Composer
Matthew Ridgway			United States Army Senior Officer, Supreme Allied Commander of Europe & 19th Chief of Staff of the United States Army
Vermont C. Royster			Editor of The Wall Street Journal
Albert Sabin			Medical Researcher, President of the Weizmann Institute of Science & Developer of the Oral Polio Vaccine
Anne Armstrong	1987		First Female Counselor to the President, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom & Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board
Justin Whitlock Dart Sr.		†	President of Dart Industries & Executive Director of Store Industries for Walgreens
Irving Kaufman			Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit & District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Danny Kaye		†	Actor, Comedian & Singer
Lyman Lemnitzer			United States Army General, 4th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO
John A. McCone			6th Director of Central Intelligence
Frederick Patterson			President of Tuskegee University & Founder of the United Negro College Fund
Nathan Perlmutter			4th Director of the Anti-Defamation League
Mstislav Rostropovich			Cellist, Conductor & Human Rights Advocate
William B. Walsh			Founder of Project HOPE (USA)
Caspar Weinberger		WD	15th United States Secretary of Defense & 10th United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare	[11]
Meredith Willson		†	Flutist, Bandleader, Composer, Conductor & Playwright
Pearl Bailey	1988		Broadway Actress & Singer
Malcolm Baldrige Jr.		†	25th United States Secretary of Commerce
Irving Brown			Trade Unionist & Leader of the American Federation of Labor and the AFL-CIO
Warren E. Burger			15th Chief Justice of the United States
Peter Carington			6th Secretary General of NATO & Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Edward DeBartolo			Businessman & Real-Estate Developer
Milton Friedman			Economist & Statistician
Jean MacArthur			Philanthropist
J. Willard Marriott		†	Entrepreneur & Founder of the Marriott Corporation
David Packard			Co-founder, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hewlett-Packard, 13th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense & President of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Roger L. Stevens			Founding Chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts
Mike Mansfield	1989		United States Senator from Montana
George Shultz			60th United States Secretary of State

Awarded by George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush awarded 38 medals between 1989 and 1993.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Lucille Ball	1989	†	Actress, Comedian & Producer
C. Douglas Dillon			57th United States Secretary of the Treasury & the U.S. Ambassador to France
Jimmy Doolittle			Military General & Commander of the Doolittle Raid
George F. Kennan			1st Director of Policy Planning & the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union & Yugoslavia
Claude Pepper			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & United States Senator from Florida
Margaret Chase Smith			United States Senator from Maine
Lech Wałęsa			Chairman of the Solidarity
James Baker	1991		10th and 16th White House Chief of Staff
William F. Buckley Jr.			Founder of the National Review Magazine
Dick Cheney			17th United States Secretary of Defense, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & future 46th Vice president of the United States	[48]
Luis A. Ferré			Governor of Puerto Rico
Betty Ford			First Lady of the United States	[49]
Hanna Holborn Gray			9th President of the University of Chicago
Friedrich Hayek			Economist & Legal Theorist
Tip O'Neill			47th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar			Secretary General of the United Nations
Colin Powell			12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.			Commander of the United States Central Command
Brent Scowcroft			8th and 16th United States National Security Advisor
Leon Sullivan			Baptist Minister & Civil Rights and Social Activist
Margaret Thatcher			Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Russell E. Train			2nd Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Vernon A. Walters			10th Deputy Director of Central Intelligence & the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, West Germany and Germany
William Webster			14th Director of Central Intelligence & the 3rd Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Ted Williams			Professional Baseball Player
David Brinkley	1992		Newscaster for NBC and ABC
Johnny Carson			Television Host
Ella Fitzgerald			Jazz Singer
Audrey Hepburn			Actress & Humanitarian
Richard Petty			Seven Time Champion of the NASCAR Cup Series, Seven Time Winner of the Daytona 500
Harry W. Shlaudeman			U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Nicaragua
Isaac Stern			Violinist
John W. Vessey			10th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Sam Walton			Founder of Walmart and Sam's Club
Elie Wiesel			Political Activist, Writer & Holocaust Survivor
I. M. Pei			Architect	[50]
Ronald Reagan	1993	WD	40th President of the United States & Governor of California	[51][11]
Strom Thurmond			United States Senator from South Carolina

Awarded by Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton awarded 89 medals between 1993 and 2001.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Arthur Ashe	1993	†	Professional Tennis Player
William J. Brennan Jr.			Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Marjory Stoneman Douglas			Journalist, Woman's Suffrage Advocate & Conservationist
J. William Fulbright			United States Senator from Arkansas
Thurgood Marshall		†	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States & the Supreme Court's First African-American Justice
Colin Powell		WD	12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff	[5][11]
Joseph L. Rauh Jr.		†	Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Lawyer
Martha Raye			Comic Actress & Singer	[52]
John Minor Wisdom			Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Herbert L. Block	1994		Editorial Cartoonist
Cesar Chavez		†	Labor Leader, Civil Rights Activist & Co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association
Arthur Sherwood Flemming			3rd United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
James P. Grant			Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund
Dorothy Height			Civil Rights and Women's Rights Activist & President of the National Council of Negro Women
Barbara Jordan			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Lane Kirkland			Labour Union Leader & President of AFL-CIO
Robert H. Michel			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Sargent Shriver			1st Director of the Peace Corps & Founder of the Job Corps, Head Start, VISTA and Upward Bound
Peggy Charren	1995		Founder of Action for Children's Television	[52]
William T. Coleman Jr.			4th United States Secretary of Transportation
John Hope Franklin			President of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association and the Southern Historical Association
Joan Ganz Cooney			Founder of Sesame Workshop	[52]
A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.			Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Frank Minis Johnson			Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
C. Everett Koop			13th Surgeon General of the United States
Gaylord Nelson			United States Senator from Wisconsin
Walter Reuther		†	4th President of the United Automobile Workers
James Rouse			Founder of The Rouse Company
Willie Velasquez		†	Founder of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
Lew Wasserman			President of MCA Inc.	[52]
Joseph Bernardin	1996		Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church & Archbishop of Cincinnati & Chicago
James Brady			17th White House Press Secretary
Millard Fuller			Co-founder and President for Habitat For Humanity International
David A. Hamburg			President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York
John H. Johnson			Founder of the Johnson Publishing Company
Eugene Lang			Founder of REFAC Technology Development Corporation
Jan Nowak-Jeziorański			Polish Journalist & Writer
Antonia Pantoja			Founder of ASPIRA & Boricua College
Rosa Parks			Civil Rights Activist
Ginetta Sagan			Human Rights Activist
Mo Udall			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Bob Dole	1997		United States Senator from Kansas
William J. Perry			19th United States Secretary of Defense
John Shalikashvili			13th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & the Supreme Allied Commander Europe
Arnold Aronson	1998		Founder of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Brooke Astor			Philanthropist & Chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation
Robert Coles			Child Psychiatrist & Professor at Harvard University
Justin Dart Jr.			Co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities
James Farmer			1st National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality
Dante Fascell			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Zachary Fisher			Philanthropist
Frances Hesselbein			CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA
Fred Korematsu			Civil Rights Activist
Sol Linowitz			Diplomat & Lawyer
Wilma Mankiller			Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation	[53]
Margaret Murie			Conservationist
Mario G. Obledo			Civil Rights Leader & 41st President of LULAC
Elliot Richardson			69th United States Attorney General
David Rockefeller			CEO of Chase Manhattan Corporation
Albert Shanker		†	President of the United Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers
Elmo Zumwalt			19th Chief of Naval Operations
Lloyd Bentsen	1999		United States Senator from Texas & 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury
Edgar Bronfman Sr.			President of the World Jewish Congress
Jimmy Carter			39th President of the United States & Humanitarian	[52]
Rosalynn Carter			First Lady of the United States & Humanitarian	[52]
Evelyn Dubrow			Labour Lobbyist for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
Isolina Ferré			Roman Catholic Religious Sister & Humanitarian	[52]
Gerald Ford			38th President of the United States	[52]
Oliver Hill			Civil Rights Attorney
Max Kampelman			Counselor of the United States Department of State
Helmut Kohl			Chancellor of Germany
George J. Mitchell			United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland & United States Senator from Maine
Edgar Wayburn			Environmentalist & President of the Sierra Club
James E. Burke	2000		CEO of Johnson & Johnson
John Chafee		†	United States Senator from Rhode Island
Wesley Clark			Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO
William J. Crowe			11th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & the 29th U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Marian Wright Edelman			Founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund	[54]
John Kenneth Galbraith			7th U.S. Ambassador to India
George G. Higgins			Catholic Priest & Labor Activist
Jesse Jackson			Political Activist & United States Shadow Senator from the District of Columbia
Mildred Jeffrey			Political and Social Activist
Mathilde Krim			Founding Chairman of amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research
George McGovern			United States Senator from South Dakota
Daniel Patrick Moynihan			United States Senator from New York
Cruz Reynoso			Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California
Aung San Suu Kyi			General Secretary of the National League for Democracy
Gardner C. Taylor			Baptist Preacher	[52]
Simon Wiesenthal			Holocaust Survivor & Nazi Hunter

Awarded by George W. Bush

George W. Bush awarded 82 medals between 2001 and 2009.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Hank Aaron	2002		Professional Baseball Player
Bill Cosby			Stand-Up Comedian & Actor	[52]
Plácido Domingo			Opera Singer & Conductor
Peter Drucker			Management Consultant & Educator
Katharine Graham		†	President of The Washington Post
Donald Henderson			Epidemiologist & Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Irving Kristol			Journalist & Godfather of Neoconservativism
Nelson Mandela			Anti-Apartheid Activist & President of South Africa
Gordon Moore			Co-founder and Chairman of Intel Corporation	[55]
Nancy Reagan			First Lady of the United States	[52]
Fred Rogers			Television Host & Presbyterian Minister	[52]
A. M. Rosenthal			Journalist & Executive Editor of The New York Times
Robert Bartley	2003		Editor of the Editorial Page of The Wall Street Journal
Jacques Barzun			Historian
Julia Child			Cooking Teacher & Television Personality
Roberto Clemente		†	Professional Baseball Player
Van Cliburn			Pianist
Václav Havel			President of Czechoslovakia & the Czech Republic
Charlton Heston			Actor & Political Activist	[52]
George Robertson			10th Secretary General of NATO & Secretary of State for Defence
Edward Teller			Theoretical Physicist
Dave Thomas		†	Founder and CEO of Wendy's
Byron White		†	Professional Football Player & Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States	[56]
James Q. Wilson			Political Scientist
John Wooden			Basketball Coach
Paul Bremer	2004		Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq
Edward Brooke			United States Senator from Massachusetts
Doris Day			Actress, Singer & Activist	[52]
Tommy Franks			Commander of the United States Central Command
Vartan Gregorian			12th President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York
Gilbert Melville Grosvenor			President and Chairman of the National Geographic Society
Gordon B. Hinckley			15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	[52]
John Paul II		WD	Pope	[52][11]
Estée Lauder			Co-founder of the Estée Lauder Companies
Rita Moreno			Actress, Dancer & Singer	[52]
Arnold Palmer			Professional Golfer
Arnall Patz			Medical Doctor & Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University
Norman Podhoretz			Magazine Editor & Writer for Commentary Magazine
George Tenet			18th Director of Central Intelligence
Muhammad Ali	2005		Professional Boxer & Human Rights Activist
Walter Wriston			Chairman and CEO of Citicorp
Carol Burnett			Actress & Comedian	[52]
Vint Cerf			Co-Developer of the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol	[57]
Robert Conquest			Historian & Poet
Aretha Franklin			Singer-Songwriter & Pianist
Alan Greenspan			13th Chair of the Federal Reserve
Andy Griffith			Actor & Comedian	[52]
Paul Harvey			Radio Broadcaster for ABC News Radio	[52]
Bob Kahn			Co-Developer of the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol	[58]
Sonny Montgomery			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & Major General of the Mississippi National Guard
Richard Myers			15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Jack Nicklaus			Professional Golfer
Frank Robinson			Professional Baseball Player
Paul Rusesabagina			Rwandan politician & Manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali during the Rwandan Genocide protecting 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees
Ruth Johnson Colvin	2006		Founder of ProLiteracy Worldwide	[59]
Norman Francis			President of Xavier University of Louisiana	[59]
Paul Johnson			Journalist	[59]
B.B. King			Blues Singer-Songwriter	[59]
Joshua Lederberg			Molecular Biologist	[59]
David McCullough			Popular Historian	[59]
Norman Mineta			14th United States Secretary of Transportation & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	[59]
Buck O'Neil		†	Professional Baseball Player	[59]
William Safire			Political Columnist for The New York Times	[59]
Natan Sharansky			Israeli Politician & Human Rights Activist	[59]
Gary Becker	2007		Economist
Óscar Elías Biscet			Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms Advocate in Cuba
Francis Collins			2nd Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute
Benjamin Hooks			Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Henry Hyde			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Brian Lamb			Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO of C-SPAN	[52]
Harper Lee			Novelist & Civil Rights Activist
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf			24th President of Liberia
Ben Carson	2008		Neurosurgeon & Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center	[60]
Anthony Fauci			5th Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases	[60]
Tom Lantos			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	[60]
Peter Pace			16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff	[60]
Donna Shalala			18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services	[60]
Laurence Silberman			Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit	[60]
Tony Blair	2009		Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	[61]
Ryan Crocker			United States Ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan & Iraq	[62]
John Howard			25th Prime Minister of Australia
Álvaro Uribe			31st President of Colombia

Awarded by Barack Obama

Barack Obama awarded 118 medals between 2009 and 2017.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Nancy Brinker	2009		Founder of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation	[63]
Joe Medicine Crow			War Chief of the Crow Nation	[64]
Pedro José Greer			Physician & Founding Dean for the Roseman University Health Sciences College of Medicine	[64]
Stephen Hawking			Theoretical Physicist	[64]
Jack Kemp		†	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York	[64]
Ted Kennedy			United States Senator from Massachusetts	[64]
Billie Jean King			Professional Tennis Player and gender equality advocate	[64]
Joseph Lowery			Co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference	[64]
Harvey Milk		†	Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors & Gay Rights Activist	[64]
Sandra Day O'Connor			Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court & the Supreme Court's First Female Justice	[65]
Sidney Poitier			Actor & First African-American & Bahamian to Win an Academy Award	[52]
Chita Rivera			Actress, Singer & Dancer	[64]
Mary Robinson			7th President of Ireland	[64]
Janet Rowley			Geneticist & First Scientist to Identify a Chromosomal Translocation as the Cause of Leukemia and other Cancers.	[64]
Desmond Tutu			Anglican Bishop, Theologian & Human Rights Activist	[64]
Muhammad Yunus			Founder of Grameen Bank
John H. Adams	2011		Founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council	[66]
Maya Angelou			Poet & Civil Rights Activist	[66]
Warren Buffett			Philanthropist & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway	[66]
George H. W. Bush			41st President of the United States	[66]
Robert Gates			22nd United States Secretary of Defense	[67]
Jasper Johns			Abstract Expressionist Painter & Printmaker	[66]
John Lewis			Civil Rights Activist & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	[66]
Tom Little		†	Optometrist & Leader of an International Assistance Mission killed during the 2010 Badakhshan Massacre	[66]
Yo-Yo Ma			Cellist & United Nations Messenger of Peace	[66]
Sylvia Mendez			Civil Rights Activist	[66]
Angela Merkel			Chancellor of Germany	[66]
Stan Musial			Professional Baseball Player	[66]
Bill Russell			Professional Basketball Player	[66]
Jean Kennedy Smith			United States Ambassador to Ireland	[66]
John J. Sweeney			President of AFL-CIO & Labor Leader	[66]
Gerda Weissmann Klein			Author, Human Rights Activist & Holocaust Educator	[66]
Madeleine Albright	2012		64th United States Secretary of State	[68]
Bob Dylan			Singer-Songwriter	[68]
William Foege			10th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention	[68]
John Glenn			Astronaut and United States Senator from Ohio	[68]
Juliette Gordon Low		†	Founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA	[68]
Gordon Hirabayashi		†	Sociologist, Civil Rights Activist & Plaintiff in Hirabayashi v. United States	[68]
Dolores Huerta			Labor Leader & Co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association	[68]
Jan Karski		†	Resistance-Fighter during WWII & Diplomat	[68]
Toni Morrison			Novelist & Civil Rights Activist	[68]
Shimon Peres			9th President of Israel	[68]
John Paul Stevens			Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States	[68]
Pat Summitt			Women's College Basketball Head Coach	[68]
Patricia Wald			Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit	[68]
Ernie Banks	2013		Professional Baseball Player	[69]
Ben Bradlee			Executive Editor of The Washington Post	[70]
Bill Clinton			42nd President of the United States	[70]
John Doar			Lawyer & Lead Special Counsel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Impeachment Inquiry Staff during the Impeachment Process Against Richard Nixon	[70]
Daniel Inouye		†	United States Senator from Hawaii	[70]
Daniel Kahneman			Psychologist & Economist	[70]
Richard Lugar			United States Senator from Indiana	[70]
Loretta Lynn			Singer-Songwriter	[70]
Mario J. Molina			Chemist who discovered the Antarctic Ozone Hole	[70]
Sally Ride		†	Astronaut & Physicist	[71]
Bayard Rustin		†	Human Rights Activist	[70]
Arturo Sandoval			Jazz Trumpeter, Pianist & Composer	[70]
Dean Smith			Men's College Basketball Head Coach	[70]
Gloria Steinem			Journalist & Social Political Activist	[70]
C. T. Vivian			Minister & Civil Rights Activist	[70]
Oprah Winfrey			Talk Show Host, Actress & Philanthropist	[70]
Alvin Ailey	2014	†	Dancer & Founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater	[72]
Isabel Allende			Author	[72]
Tom Brokaw			Network Television Journalist	[72]
James Chaney		†	Civil Rights Activist	[72]
John Dingell			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Mildred Dresselhaus			Nanotechnologist & Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Andrew Goodman		†	Civil Rights Activist	[72]
Ethel Kennedy			Human Rights Activist & Founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights	[72]
Abner Mikva			Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Patsy Mink		†	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Edward Roybal		†	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
Michael Schwerner		†	Civil Rights Activist	[72]
Suzan Shown Harjo			President of the National Council of American Indians	[72]
Charlie Sifford			Professional Golfer & the First African-American to play on the PGA Tour	[72]
Robert Solow			Economist & Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology	[73]
Meryl Streep			Actress	[72]
Marlo Thomas			Actress, Producer & Social Activist	[72]
Stevie Wonder			Singer-Songwriter	[72]
Steven Spielberg	2015		Director, Producer & Screenwriter	[74]
Emilio Estefan			Musician & Producer	[74]
Gloria Estefan			Singer & Actress	[74]
Itzhak Perlman			Violinist & Conductor	[74]
Stephen Sondheim			Composer & Lyricist of Musical Theater	[74]
Barbra Streisand			Singer & Actress	[74]
James Taylor			Singer-Songwriter	[74]
Minoru Yasui		†	Lawyer & Plaintiff in Yasui v. United States	[74]
Billy Frank Jr.		†	Environmental Leader & Treaty Rights Activist	[74]
Shirley Chisholm		†	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & First African-American Woman Elected to Congress	[74]
Lee H. Hamilton			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	[74]
Barbara Mikulski			United States Senator from Maryland	[74]
William Ruckelshaus			1st & 5th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency	[74]
Katherine Johnson			Mathematician whose calculations helped with the First successful U.S. Crewed Spaceflight	[74]
Yogi Berra		†	Professional Baseball Player	[74]
Bonnie Carroll			Founder and President of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors	[74]
Willie Mays			Professional Baseball Player	[74]
Frank Gehry	2016		Architect	[75]
Richard Garwin			Physicist & Author of the First Hydrogen Bomb Design	[75]
Maya Lin			Designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.	[75]
Robert Redford			Actor & Filmmaker	[75]
Robert De Niro			Actor & Producer	[75]
Tom Hanks			Actor	[75]
Cicely Tyson			Actress	[75]
Diana Ross			Singer & Actress	[75]
Bruce Springsteen			Singer-Songwriter	[76]
Grace Hopper		†	Computer Scientist & Developer of the FLOW-MATIC programming language	[75]
Margaret Hamilton			Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory	[75]
Eduardo J. Padrón			President of Miami Dade College	[75]
Newton N. Minow			Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission	[75]
Lorne Michaels			Comedian & Film and Television Producer	[75]
Ellen DeGeneres			Comedian, Television Host & Gay Rights Activist	[75]
Bill Gates			Philanthropist & Co-founder of Microsoft	[75]
Melinda French Gates			Philanthropist & Co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation	[75]
Elouise P. Cobell		†	Tribal Elder, Activist & Lead Plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar	[75]
Vin Scully			Sportscaster	[75]
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar			Professional Basketball Player	[75]
Michael Jordan			Professional Basketball Player	[75]
Joe Biden	2017	WD	47th Vice President of the United States	[77][78][11]

Awarded by Donald Trump (first presidency)

Donald Trump awarded 24 medals between 2017 and 2021.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Miriam Adelson	2018		Physician and philanthropist	[79]
Orrin Hatch			United States Senator from Utah	[79]
Alan Page			Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and football player	[79]
Elvis Presley		†	Singer and actor known as the "King of Rock and Roll"	[79]
Babe Ruth		†	Professional baseball player	[79]
Antonin Scalia		†	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States	[79]
Roger Staubach			Professional football player	[79]
Bob Cousy	2019		Professional basketball player	[80]
Arthur Laffer			Economist, best known for the Laffer curve	[81]
Edwin Meese			75th United States Attorney General	[82]
Roger Penske			Professional auto racing team owner, driver, and businessman	[83]
Mariano Rivera			Professional baseball player	[84]
Jerry West			Basketball executive and Olympic professional basketball player	[85]
Tiger Woods			Professional golfer	[86]
Dan Gable	2020		Olympic wrestler	[87]
Lou Holtz			University football coach	[88]
Jack Keane			Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army	[89]
Rush Limbaugh		[b]	Political commentator	[91]
Jim Ryun			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Olympic athlete	[92]
Babe Didrikson Zaharias	2021	†	Olympic athlete	[93]
Devin Nunes			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California	[94]
Jim Jordan			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio	[95]
Gary Player			Professional golfer	[93]
Annika Sörenstam			Professional golfer	[93]

Awarded by Joe Biden

Joe Biden awarded 57 medals between 2022 and 2025.

Recipient	Year	Notes	Notable as	Ref.
Simone Biles	2022		Olympic gymnast	[96]
Simone Campbell			Roman Catholic religious sister & Member of the Sisters of Social Service	[96]
Julieta García			President of Texas Southmost College	[96]
Gabrielle Giffords			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona & gun control activist	[96]
Fred Gray			Civil rights attorney & state legislator	[96]
Steve Jobs		†	Entrepreneur & co-founder and CEO of Apple	[96]
Alexander Karloutsos			Protopresbyter in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America	[96]
Khizr Khan			Member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom & activist	[96]
Sandra Lindsay			Critical Care Nurse & First American to receive the COVID-19 Vaccine	[96]
John McCain		†	United States Senator from Arizona & Purple Heart recipient	[96]
Diane Nash			Civil rights activist & Co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee	[96]
Megan Rapinoe			Olympic professional soccer player & human rights activist	[96]
Alan Simpson			United States Senator from Wyoming	[96]
Richard Trumka		†	Organized labor leader	[96]
Wilma Vaught			Brigadier General, U.S. Air Force	[96]
Raul Yzaguirre			U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic & President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza	[96]
Michael Bloomberg	2024		Entrepreneur, philanthropist and Mayor of New York City	[97]
Greg Boyle			Jesuit Catholic priest & Founder and director of the rehabilitation program Homeboy Industries	[97]
Jim Clyburn			Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina	[97]
Elizabeth Dole			United States Senator from North Carolina, Transportation Secretary, and Labor Secretary	[97]
Phil Donahue			Former daytime talk show host	[97]
Medgar Evers		†	Famous Civil rights activist who was murdered at age 37 in 1963	[97]
Al Gore			45th Vice President of the United States and environmentalist	[97]
Clarence B. Jones			Civil rights activist	[97]
John Kerry			U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, U.S. Secretary of State and United States Senator from Massachusetts.	[97]
Frank Lautenberg		†	United States Senator from New Jersey	[97]
Katie Ledecky			Olympic swimmer	[97]
Opal Lee			Educator and activist who pushed to make Juneteenth a national holiday	[97]
Ellen Ochoa			Astronaut	[97]
Nancy Pelosi			52nd and first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives	[97]
Jane Rigby			Astrophysicist	[97]
Teresa Romero			President of the United Farm Workers union	[97]
Judy Shepard			Co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation	[97]
Jim Thorpe		†	First Native American to win an Olympic gold medal	[97]
Michelle Yeoh			Actress and activist who also became the first person of Asian descent to win an Academy Award for Best Actress	[97]
Jens Stoltenberg			13th Secretary General of NATO & 34th Prime Minister of Norway	[98]
Cecile Richards			Activist and President of Planned Parenthood	[97][99]
José Andrés	2025		Spanish-American chef, founder of World Central Kitchen	[100]
Bono			Frontman of U2 and activist against AIDS and poverty	[100]
Ash Carter		†	25th Secretary of Defense	[100]
Hillary Clinton			Former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State	[100]
Michael J. Fox			Actor and advocate for Parkinson's disease research	[100]
Tim Gill			Computer programmer and LGBTQ activist	[100]
Jane Goodall			Ethologist and conservationist	[100]
Fannie Lou Hamer		†	Civil rights activist	[100]
Magic Johnson			Professional basketball player	[100]
Robert F. Kennedy		†	Attorney General	[100]
Ralph Lauren			Fashion designer	[100]
Lionel Messi		[c]	Professional soccer player	[100]
Bill Nye			Science communicator and TV presenter	[100]
George W. Romney		†	43rd Governor of Michigan and 3rd Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	[100]
David M. Rubenstein			Co-founder of The Carlyle Group	[100]
George Soros			Investor and philanthropist	[100]
George Stevens Jr.			Founder of the American Film Institute	[100]
Denzel Washington		[d]	Actor, producer & director	[100]
Anna Wintour			Chief editor at Vogue	[100]
Pope Francis		WD	Head of the Catholic Church from 2013 to 2025	[103][11]

Notes

1. Lehman died the day before the ceremony.^[15]
2. Awarded during 2020 State of the Union Address.^[90]
3. Messi was unable to attend the ceremony due to prior commitments.^[101]
4. Washington was supposed to receive the award in 2022 but had to skip the ceremony after testing positive for COVID-19.^[102]

See also

• List of Congressional Gold Medal recipients

Bibliography

• Wetterau, Bruce (1996). The Presidential Medal of Freedom: Winners and Their Achievements. Congressional Quarterly. p. 513. ISBN 978-1-56802-128-7. – contains a list of awardees from 1963 to approximately 1995