Steve Ford, Mike Ford, Tom O’Neill and Susan Ford Bales | View event photos on Flickr
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill has been selected posthumously as the recipient of the 2012 Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service. The medal was presented by Steve Ford, Chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and son of former President Ford at the annual dinner of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation on June 4, 2012 at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, DC.
The award will be accepted by the O’Neill family and Tip O’Neill’s oldest son, Thomas P. O’Neill III.
“The O’Neill Family deeply appreciates having our father recognized with this wonderful medal for distinguished service in Gerald Ford’s name. This makes the centennial year of our father’s birth even more special. The wonderful friendship our fathers enjoyed continues on,” said Thomas O’Neill III, founder and chief executive officer of O’Neill and Associates, New England’s leading public relations and government affairs consulting firm. In addition, Thomas O’Neill III is a former state legislator and Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This is the sixth year that the medal will be presented in memory and in recognition of the leadership attributes of President Ford.
“It is fitting that the medal should be awarded to Tip O’Neill, an extraordinary individual whose long career in public service has demonstrated so many of the ideals championed by dad,” Steve Ford said. “Dad and Tip remained good friends despite their political differences. In today’s partisan political climate our elected officials would do well to reflect upon the values held by Tip and dad in order to accomplish more for our nation.”
The medal is given annually to an individual who has served the public good in the private or public sector. The award was established by the Board of Trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation in 2003. Previous recipients have been: William T. Coleman (2011), Henry Kissinger (2010), John Paul Stevens (2009), Carla A. Hills (2008), James Baker and Lee Hamilton (2007), Men and Women of the United States Armed Forces (2006), Betty Ford (2005), Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (2004), and Alan Greenspan (2003).
“Tip O’Neill was an outstanding political leader and patriot who always carried the torch for the Congress and American people,” President Ford said following his friend’s death in 1994.
Foundation Board Chairman Emeritus, Martin J. Allen Jr. noted that “the criteria for the recipient are based on characteristics that President Ford demonstrated in his public service. They include courage, strength of character, integrity, diligence, and determination in the face of adversity, all of which have been characteristic of Tip O’Neill’s remarkable public service.”
A quote from Tip O’Neill is inscribed on the granite base of the Gerald R. Ford Statue in the United States Rotunda and the duplicate Statue in front of the Museum. It reads, “God has been good to America, especially during difficult times. At the time of the Civil War, He gave us Abraham Lincoln. And at the time of Watergate, He gave us Gerald Ford – the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again.”
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill’s career of distinguished public service spanned 50 years. He graduated from Boston College in 1936. Tip was first elected to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives that same year and became the first Democratic Speaker of the Massachusetts House in 1949. In 1952 he was elected to the 83rd Congress of the United States. He went on to be elected to 16 succeeding Congresses during his career. During his years in Congress, he served as the chair of the Select Committee on Campaign Expenditures, the Majority Whip, Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House of Representatives for the 95th through the 99th Congresses. His service as Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement in 1987 made him the longest consecutive-serving Speaker in United States history.
Mission Statement:
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation fosters increased awareness of the life, career, values, and legacy of America’s 38th President. It does so through activities designed to promote the high ideals of integrity, honesty, and candor that defined President Ford’s extraordinary career of public service and historical legacy of President Gerald R. Ford and further promotes greater civic engagement and recognition of integrity wherever it exists in the public arena. It supports permanent and changing exhibits designed to promote historical literacy, as well as conferences, educational outreach and other programs, both scholarly and popular, including at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.
