2000 - Dr. Donald C. Johanson
Johanson is a paleoanthropologist best known for discovering the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton named Lucy.
1999 - Robert Ballard
A world-renowned marine geologist and marine physicist, Ballard discovered the Titanic in 1985.
1998 - Frank McCourt
A teacher and author, McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Angela's Ashes in 1997.
1996 - Jacques d'Amboise
One of the finest classical dancers of our time, d’Amboise is the founder of the National Dance Institute and a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.
1995 - Joyce Carol Oates
An American writer, Oates has published over 40 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, garnering her a National Book Award, two O. Henry Awards, and the National Humanities Medal.
1994 - David McCullough
McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1993 - Madame Jehan Sadat
A human rights activist, Jehan is the widow of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. She was First Lady of Egypt from 1970 until Sadat's assassination in 1981.
1992 - Leon Lederman
A winner of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1988, Lederman was a lead scientist on the establishment of the super-conducting super collider.
1991 - Edward Albee
Albee was an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story, The Sandbox, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and A Delicate Balance. Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
1990 - Stanislav Levchenko
Levchenko is a former Russian KGB major who defected to the United States in 1979. He is the highest ranking KGB officer to defect to the West.
1989 - The Honorable Shirley Chisholm
Winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress, and in 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States.
