Pickering honored for service to presidency

Before arriving at Boeing in early 2001 to help the aerospace company "go global," International Relations Senior Vice President Tom Pickering already had.

This career ambassador—who has held top U.S. diplomatic posts in six countries and the United Nations—was honored last month with the National Portrait Gallery Paul Peck Presidential Award for making significant contributions to the American presidency. Pickering is the second winner of the "Service to a President" award, which was created last year.

The Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C., served as the backdrop for the award reception and dinner. The event also honored Diana Walker, a veteran Time magazine photojournalist who covered the White House for 20 years. She was saluted for her award-winning portrayal of the U.S. presidency.

The Peck Awards—created when U.S. Customs Service employee and private investor Paul Peck donated $2 million to enhance National Portrait Gallery presidential programs—are designed to increase citizen awareness of and participation in the U.S. political process. The Awards Selection Committee is a veritable Who's Who in Washington, with former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush serving as the committee honorary chairmen.

In taped video remarks broadcast during the reception, former President Bush said: "It was a great pleasure to work with Tom, and I treasure our personal relationship. ... I take great pride in sending my congratulations to two such good friends who have served and portrayed the presidency so well."

The Selection Committee is chaired by former White House communications adviser David Gergen and includes former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, journalist Cokie Roberts, civil rights activist and professor Roger Wilkins, and former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.

A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ferraro first met Pickering in January 1984 during his ambassadorship in El Salvador. She got reacquainted with him during his diplomatic service in Israel. "Every place he has been has made me proud as an American to have him representing us," Ferraro said at the awards. "When there came an opportunity to vote on this, there was no one else in my view."

Wilkins, a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post Watergate coverage team, added: "I've known Tom for many years, and he is one of the most honorable and ablest foreign policy people I have met in my more than 40 years in Washington. He's everything you would want in a public servant—honesty and integrity and devotion to his country and to his calling, so I couldn't be happier" about his Peck selection.

Because of Peck's personal interest in involving young people in the democratic process, Pickering and Walker shared their experiences with D.C.-area and East Coast high school students at two October forums sponsored by the Close Up Foundation and the Junior Statesman of America. The teens got a chance to hear the two winners' impressions of past presidencies and their thoughts on current world events. Through his fund, Peck wants young people to know that "democracy is not a spectator sport, and we must have people participating."

And even though he usually rubs shoulders with top-level political and business leaders around the globe, Pickering relished the chance to interact with youth. "It was not a test," he said, "but a privilege to talk with such interesting high school students [they] brought together to speak to us about the future."