Daniels receives Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal

Purdue President Emeritus Mitch Daniels received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal at the 105th annual meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association in Indianapolis on Oct. 19.

The Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal was established in 1923 by the Roosevelt Memorial Association — now the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) — to honor outstanding service in fields reflecting the work and interests of President Theodore Roosevelt. By recognizing contemporary achievements, the TRA seeks to keep alive Roosevelt’s spirit of selfless service, strenuous endeavor, patriotic idealism and practical accomplishment. This living memorial pays tribute to the best in American life.

Medals were awarded annually from 1923-67 (except in 1941 and 1944), and since 1967 have been given on an occasional basis. Daniels is the first recipient since 2011.

Daniels was lauded as a public servant, educator and conservationist. The TRA acclaimed Daniels as one who has, for nearly five decades, “exemplified Theordore Roosevelt’s values of honesty, decency, fair-dealing and common sense” and has “shaped our public conversations spanning such issues as business, infrastructure, education and health.”

Daniels served as the 12th president of Purdue from 2013-22 following two terms as Indiana’s 49th governor. He currently serves as a distinguished scholar and senior advisor at the Liberty Fund.

At Purdue, Daniels made student affordability and student success top priorities, pledging to keep a Purdue education within reach for students and families — providing higher education at the highest proven value. During the Daniels Decade, Purdue enjoyed unprecedented growth of its student body (eight straight record enrollments) and faculty, as well as heightened rankings across the board for the land-grant university, its colleges and programs.

Daniels was elected governor in his first bid for any elective office and was then reelected with more votes than any other candidate in the state’s history. Prior to becoming governor, Daniels served as chief of staff to Sen. Richard Lugar, senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan and director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. Daniels also was CEO of the Hudson Institute and had an 11-year career as an executive at Eli Lilly and Company.

Previous recipients of the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal reflect President Roosevelt’s range of interests and include presidents Herbert Hoover (1927), Dwight D. Eisenhower (1946) and George H.W. Bush (1998); naturalists Gov. Gifford Pinchot (1925) and Horace Albright (1955); explorers Charles Lindbergh (1928), Adm. Richard Byrd (1930), John Glenn (1962) and Charles “Chuck” Yeager (1985); writers and thinkers Helen Keller (1936), Robert Frost (1954), Samuel Eliot Morison (1956) and Tom Wolfe (1990); and American Nobel Prize laureates Elihu Root (1924), Robert Millikin (1932), Cordell Hull (1945) and Arthur Compton (1955).

Chartered by an act of Congress in 1920, the TRA perpetuates the legacy of the 26th president of the United States.