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Northwest Prime Time
FREE Celebrating Life After 50
SERVING THE PUGET SOUND REGION SINCE 1986
www.NorthwestPrimeTime.com
VOL. 16 NO. 1 JANUARY 2016
Two Washingtonians Honored at the White House with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
On November 24, President Barack Obama named seventeen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom including two extraordinary men from Washington State, William Ruckelshaus and Billy Frank Jr. President Obama opened the ceremony by saying, “I look forward to presenting these 17 distinguished Americans with our nation’s highest civilian honor. From public servants who helped us meet defining challenges of our time to artists who expanded our imaginations, from leaders who have made our union more perfect to athletes who have inspired millions of fans, these men and women have enriched our lives and helped define our shared experience as Americans.”
William Ruckelshaus In an interview with KUOW’s Ashley Ahearn, William (Bill) Ruckelshaus reported that he has not yet decided where to display the Presidential Medal of Freedom that President Obama presented to him on November 24. But he is having fun with the thought. “Well, I’ve threatened my wife to wear it outside my suit William Ruckelshaus coat in the daytime and inside my pajamas at night so it wouldn’t hit her in the face when I turned over,” joked the 83-year-old Ruckelshaus before admitting he really doesn’t know what he’ll do with the medal. During the awards ceremony, President Obama cited the environmental elder statesman’s “tireless work to protect public health and combat global challenges like climate change. As the first and fifth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, under Presidents Nixon and Reagan, Ruckelshaus helped shape the guiding principles of the agency and worked diligently to bring the public into the decisionmaking process. Among the EPA’s key early achievements under his leadership was a nationwide ban on the pesticide DDT and an agreement with the automobile industry to require catalytic converters, which significantly reduced automobile pollution.” Ruckelshaus was a long-time public servant. He was appointed as acting director of the FBI and later served as Attorney General during the Watergate crisis. He and Attorney General Elliot Richardson chose to resign rather than fire the Watergate special prosecutor – this principled stance was a pivotal moment for the Justice Department and galvanized public opinion for upholding the rule of law.
Billy Frank Junior
Billy Frank Jr., who died in 2014, was honored posthumously with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November. Frank was an elder with Puget Sound’s Nisqually Indian Tribe and a leader in the struggle by Washington’s Native Americans to assert their treaty-bound fishing rights. As chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Frank worked to bring together tribes, local, state and federal officials to further strengthen treaty rights and environmental protection laws. Frank’s magnetic personality and tireless advocacy over more than five decades made him a revered figure both domestically and abroad. He was the recipient Billy Frank Jr. of many awards, including Ruckelshaus currently works the Albert Schweitzer Prize for the admiration that people had for as Strategic Director for Madrona Humanitarianism and the Martin him as leverage for getting things Venture Group, a Seattle-based Luther King Jr. Distinguished done for his tribe and other tribes venture capital firm that teams Service Award. He was also in Puget Sound. He really was a with technology entrepreneurs to nominated for the Nobel Peace remarkable human being.” nurture ideas from startup to market Prize in 2010. Frank left in his wake an Indian success. Frank was on the front lines in Country strengthened by greater According to his Madrona the campaign against state-imposed sovereignty and a nation fortified bio, William (Bill) Ruckelshaus’ limits on tribal fishing, known as by his example of service to one’s distinguished career has spanned the Fish Wars in the 1960s and community, his humility and his corporate boardrooms, government 1970s where he organized “fishdedication to the principles of agencies and major non-profits. ins”—modeled after the sit-ins of human rights and environmental He chairs a joint center between the civil rights movement. Those sustainability. the University of Washington and efforts lead to the 1974 Boldt In addition to the Medal of Washington State University, a decision, which reaffirmed the Freedom, Frank’s accomplishments “neutral resource” that collaborates Tribes’ rights to the fish harvest in were recognized in another on policy development and Washington. momentous occasion late last year. multiple-party dispute resolution in William Ruckelshaus, who was The “Billy Frank Jr. Tell Your Story the Pacific Northwest. also honored with the Medal of Act” headed to the White House Ruckelshaus’s other Freedom at the same White House for the President’s signature. The accomplishments include working ceremony, discussed his friend legislation will add Billy Frank Jr.’s with the U.S. Commission on Billy Frank Jr. “He reminded me, name to the Nisqually National Ocean Policy, the National Oceanic and I wrote this when he died, Wildlife Refuge. and Atmospheric Administration, more of Nelson Mandela than The Nisqually National Wildlife and the Science Advisory Board. anybody I’d ever met. Here was Refuge, which was established He has co-chaired the Puget Sound a man who had been arrested in 1974 to protect the Nisqually Partnership to help organize cleanmore than 50 times asserting his River Delta, is a biologically rich up efforts of Puget Sound. treaty rights and finally vindicated and diverse area at the southern Ruckelshaus, the everby the Boldt Decision that was end of Puget Sound. While most active octogenarian, discussed handed down in the early ‘70s. major estuaries in the state have his retirement plans during his And he had suffered so much for been filled, dredged or developed, interview with Ahearn: “Well, I asserting the rights that had been Nisqually River’s has been set aside don’t want to retire. I enjoy going given by treaty and by court case for wildlife. to the office, working on a variety that you’d think he’d be bitter “Billy was key in the effort of things. I’m 83 years old so why about things. Quite the contrary. to return much of the Nisqually retire? What am I going to do if He was open, as happy a man as Wildlife Refuge to salmon habitat I retire? Sit home and wring my you could be around. He never by breaching the dikes that once hands about the environment. That held a grudge against anybody, was surrounded it,” said Lorraine won’t do any good. So no, I’m not willing to forgive and forget, and continued on page 18 gonna retire.” ❖ use the position that he held and