We were delighted to see former U.S. Sen. John Danforth honored with the Winston Churchill Leadership Medal from the National Churchill Museum earlier this month.
It was a well-deserved honor for a man who has served Missouri well and who has showed it's possible to be passionate and principled without contributing to divisive partisanship.
Before serving in the U.S. Senate, Danforth served as Missouri's attorney general from 1969-76. Then, in the U.S. Senate, he became known as a moderate conservative who was pro life and opposed to the death penalty. He used his clout to help Clarence Thomas be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Churchill Leadership Medal recognizes individuals who have shown extraordinary leadership. It is the highest honor from the museum. Past recipients include Dr. William H. Danforth, Chancellor Emeritus of Washington University (and the senator's brother); broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite; John W. Bachmann, retired CEO of Edward Jones; former British Prime Minister Sir John Major; and Ambassador Stephen F. Brauer.
The medal was given to Danforth at a June 8 dinner in St. Louis to benefit the museum, located at Fulton's Westminster College, where Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain" speech.
Danforth, a Republican, is an ordained Episcopal priest, former three-time U.S. Senator and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In 2001, President Bush appointed Danforth as a special envoy for peace in Sudan, where he worked to broker a peace agreement that helped end the 20-year civil war there in 2005.
The keynote speaker at the event was historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who won the Pulitzer Prize in history for "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II."
Danforth is a statesman among politicians. He is a principled man of God and a gentleman, and Missouri is better for his leadership.