Scowcroft receives Hauenstein Fellowship medal

Former United States National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, who served under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, was awarded the Col. Ralph W. Hauenstein Fellowship medal on Friday. The Hauenstein Fellowship is the most prestigious award given by Grand Valley’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

Scowcroft was presented the medal at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation’s William E. Simon Lecture and luncheon. The event was held at the J.W. Marriott Hotel’s International Ballroom in Grand Rapids.

“General Scowcroft is the ideal recipient of the Col. Ralph W. Hauenstein Fellowship,” said Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. “His selfless service to, and positive impact on, our nation makes him a great role model for students who seek to learn from ethical, effective leaders.”

In addition to serving as a national security advisor, Scowcroft was also a Lieutenant General in the Air Force, and served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

He served as Chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, and assisted President Barack Obama in choosing his national security team.

In the course of his military career, Scowcroft held positions in the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Headquarters of the U.S. Air Force and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. Other assignments included faculty positions at the U. S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Assistant Air Attache in the American Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Scowcroft currently serves as a director of the Qualcomm Corporation. He is also co-chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, and serves on the University of California President’s Council on the National Laboratories. He is President of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation and the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Atlantic Council of the United States. He is also a Member of the Board of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, among others.

In 2011, the first Hauenstein Fellowship was awarded posthumously to President Gerald R. Ford, Col. Hauenstein’s good friend.

Gerald R. Ford was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974. As the first person appointed to the vice-presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment (after Spiro Agnew had resigned), when he became President upon Richard Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1974, he became the only President of the United States who was never elected President nor Vice-President by the Electoral College.

Before ascending to the vice-presidency, Ford served nearly 25 years as the Representative from Michigan’s 5th congressional district, eight of them as the Republican Minority Leader.