Black-tie affair honors government's distinguished executives
Recipients of highest award for civil servants recognized at State Department dinner.
The Senior Executives Association and its Professional Development League honored the 69 civil servants awarded the 2004 Presidential Rank Awards Thursday evening during a ceremony and dinner at the State Department.
The awards, given each year, reward senior professionals and senior executives for "exceptional long-term accomplishments." Winners receive a bonus of 35 percent of their base pay.
In announcing the winners, association president Carol Bonosaro said that the recipients had saved the government $311 billion through efforts to improve government management.
She highlighted a sampling of their accomplishments, noting that one winner had discovered "a unique bacterium in plants which revolutionized thinking about bacterial structures and which was later implicated in mad cow disease and in human diseases such as the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jacob brain disease." Another, she said, had restored "his general counsel operations within a week after American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon just two floors beneath his office." A third had found "an alternative power supply for southern Manhattan after 9/11, enabling the resumption of function of the U.S. stock markets and the Federal Reserve Bank within three days."
Joanne Simpson, a retired senior professional at NASA, received a standing ovation for her six-decade career. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology; her research in that area continues to impact weather forecasting today.
Energy Secretary Samual Bodman delivered the keynote address, discussing the history of the civil service.
The winners were:
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Robert E. Davis
W. Ron DeHaven
Patrick C. McCaskey
Kevin Shea
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Thomas L. Mesenbourg Jr.
Mary C. Pleffner
Barbara A. Retzlaff
James. L. Taylor
David J. Wineland
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Howard G. Becker
Linda J. Furiga
Sara V. Groeber
Glenn F. Lamartin
Margaret E. Myers
National Security Agency
John H. Doody
John C. Inglis
Vito T. Potenza
Linda B. Shields
Department of the Air Force
John M. Gilligan
Susan A. O'Neal
Department of the Army
James E. Heath
Department of the Navy
Peter M. Murphy
Pasquale M. Tamburrino Jr.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Robert K. Dixon
Paul Michael Golan
James S. Hirahara
Michael A. Kilpatrick
John R. Sullivan
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Thomas A. Gustafson
Richard J. Jackson
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Joseph J. Angelo
J. Richard Berman
Douglas M. Browning
Kay Frances Dolan
Gregory L. Giddens
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
W. Hord Tipton III
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
John C. Keeney
Michele M. Leonhart
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Maureen A. Baginski
Pasquale J. D'Amuro
DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
Evelyn A. Petschek
Mary Beth Shaw
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Lawrence A. Biro
Kenneth J. Clark
AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
John M. Streufert
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Geoffrey H. Grubbs
Margo T. Oge
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
Anthony E. Costa
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Orlando Figueroa
Jon C. Harpold
James W. Kennedy
David A. King
Joanne Simpson
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Thomas N. Cooley
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
Ronald S. Battocchi
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Paul E. Bird
William D. Travers
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Keith J. Fontenot
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Stephen C. Benowitz
PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION
William G. Beyer
Joseph H. Grant
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Thomas A. Dumaresq
Francisco A. Marrero
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Felicita Sola-Carter
Dale W. Sopper