George Shultz & Charlotte Mailliard Shultz to Be Honored at Commonwealth Club Annual Dinner

The Honorable George P. Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, and his wife, California and San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, will receive The Commonwealth Club of California's Distinguished Citizen Award.

They will receive the award at the Club’s 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner, which will take place April 29, 2010, at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The Club is honoring George P. Shultz and Charlotte Mailliard Shultz for their decades of service on the local, regional, national, and international levels.

Leaving the Bay Area where he had served as President of Bechtel Corporation since 1975, George Shultz served as President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state from 1982 to 1989. Before that appointment, he served as labor secretary and treasury secretary during the Nixon Administration and as a senior staff economist on the Council of Economic Advisers during the Eisenhower administration. Regarded as one of the preeminent political minds of our time, Secretary Shultz played a pivotal role in the most precarious and delicate international issues facing the United States during his day, including the Cold War. In 1989, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Today he offers his insights on global political and economic policy as a distinguished fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. In 1997 The Commonwealth Club of California honored Secretary Shultz with the Distinguished Citizen Award, along with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry; Secretary Shultz is the only person to receive the Club’s Distinguished Citizen Award twice. The author of five books and numerous academic articles, he has taught at a number of prestigious universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Chicago Graduate School of Business, and Stanford. He earned his Ph.D. in industrial economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. He received his B.A. in economics from Princeton University in 1942, joining the US Marine Corps that same year.

Together, the Shultzes constitute a dynamic and accomplished team of devoted San Franciscans. Serving in the volunteer position of chief of protocol for the State of California, it has been Mrs. Shultz’ job since 2004 to promote California on the global stage. To accomplish such a task, she has planned a multitude of events to highlight the many facets of the state’s economic and cultural life, from its technological capabilities and cosmopolitan business hubs, to its environmental diversity and scenic attractions. In her additional role as chief of protocol and director of special events for the City and County of San Francisco, Mrs. Shultz has served seven different mayors of San Francisco in a similar function, organizing, among other events, the visits of numerous foreign dignitaries to the Bay Area. Mrs. Shultz is no stranger to either civic involvement or civic honors. She is widely acknowledged as responsible for having revived the San Francisco Symphony’s Black and White Ball, for which she served as chair in 1982, ’83, ’85 and ’87. Currently she serves on the boards of the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the War Memorial Performing Arts Center, the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and The Commonwealth Club of California. She has been named the State of California Woman of the Year and received the United Nations Association of San Francisco’s Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Also being honored at the annual celebration are Jack O'Neill, founder and chairman of the board of O’Neill Wetsuits; Pixar Animation Studios' writer and director Brad Bird; and Dr. Bill Rutter, chairman and CEO of Synergenics. As leaders and innovators, these distinguished citizens embody “The Spirit of California” in creative, technological, civic, entrepreneurial, environmental, and, increasingly, global contexts.

Visit our web site for more information on The Commonwealth Club's 107th Anniversary and 22nd Annual Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner.

9/11 Anniversaries

This morning, President Obama observed the anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and elsewhere. That day, September 11, 2001, of course lives on as a date that has memories for everyone in this country, because of what it meant to be attacked by a well-financed and -organized terrorist organization and because of how it changed all of our lives since then.

During the ceremonies today, there have been many moving tributes to the heroes of that day, and memories of those lost. So we'll just take this space to provide some resources for people looking for more background on the events and context for what they meant.

Back in 2002, on the one-year anniversary of the attacks, The Commonwealth Club held a forum that was led by Ming Chin, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California, Father Stephen A. Privett, president of the University of San Francisco, and Dr. Gloria Duffy, CEO of The Commonwealth Club. You can read the transcript of the program by clicking on the jpg images to the left; these are from the transcript printed in the October 15, 2002, issue of The Commonwealth, The Club's official magazine. Our web site also hosts a transcript of the event, which you can read here.

The Commonwealth Club held a series of 9/11-related forums and other programs after September 11, and it has continued to follow matters related to terrorism, public safety, and national security in the years since. For an introduction to some of those programs, visit our archives page.

On August 17, 2004, The Commonwealth Club held an event with two members of the 9/11 Commission, Slade Gorton and Richard Ben-Venistey. You can read the transcript of that event here, or you can listen to audio of the event.

New York Times reporter Jere Longman came to The Club on August 14, 2002, to speak about the "The Story of Flight 93 and Its Heroes." You can read that transcript here.

And, of course, there have been many others. From administration officials and their supporters defending the actions taken to ensure national security, to critics of the administration concerned about constitutional protection and human rights. Those discussions have all taken place at The Commonwealth Club, and they will continue to do so, including Admiral Dennis Blair, President Obama's director of national intelligence, who will be speaking on September 15.

There will be many more anniversaries of this date, and undoubtedly people from many walks of life will mark it in their own way. We'll continue to study it all at The Commonwealth Club.

Dr. Gloria Duffy to Discuss 9/11 Anniversary on KTVU TV "Mornings on 2"

Bay Area audiences might want to catch Dr. Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of The Commonwealth Club of California, who will appear on KTVU TV's live morning news show, "Mornings on 2," tomorrow morning, September 11, at 8:15 a.m. (Pacific time). She will share her thoughts on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, as well as the international situation today.