Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to receive state’s highest citizen honor

DES MOINES — Former Gov. Terry Branstad will be honored next month with the Iowa Award, the state’s highest citizen honor, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Monday.

Reynolds — who once served as Branstad’s lieutenant governor — will present the award to Branstad during a ceremony Dec. 11 at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines, Reynolds’ office said.

Granted roughly every five years, the Iowa Award was created by the Iowa Centennial Memorial Foundation, which was established in 1948 by Gov. Robert Blue and the Iowa Legislature.

The foundation’s goal was to “encourage and recognize the outstanding service of Iowans in the fields of science, medicine, law, religion, social welfare, education, agriculture, industry, government, and other public service” and to recognize the “merit of their accomplishments in Iowa and throughout the United States,” the governor’s office said.

Branstad was Iowa’s governor from 1983 to 1998, and again from 2011 to 2017. In the process, he became the longest-tenured state governor in U.S. history.

Branstad also served as U.S. ambassador to China during President Donald Trump’s first administration, from 2017 to 2020.

“I’m very honored to receive this award,” Branstad said Monday, noting he presented it to multiple Iowans during his tenure as governor. “It’s a very distinguished group of Iowans that has received this award ever since the Iowa Centennial Memorial Foundation was established. … I’m honored and very pleased to be in this very distinguished group of Iowans.”

The most recent Iowa Award honoree was Robert Noyce in 2018. Noyce was a physicist, entrepreneur and inventor.

Other recent honorees were entrepreneur, business leader and philanthropist John Pappajohn in 2016; diplomat, humanitarian and veteran Kenneth Quinn in 2014; transportation pioneer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Dick Jacobson in 2012; and philanthropist and business and community leader Bill Knapp in 2011.

Other previous honorees include President Herbert Hoover, the first-ever honoree in 1951; first lady Mamie Eisenhower in 1970; Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug in 1978; Gallup Poll founder George Gallup in 1984; composer Meredith Willson in 1988; and scientist George Washington Carver in 2002.

“No one is more deserving of this honor than Terry Branstad, a native son who grew up here, was educated here, farmed here, and spent his life serving his fellow Iowans and Americans here and abroad,” Reynolds said in a press release. “A state legislator, lieutenant governor, the longest serving governor in our nation’s history, and a U.S. ambassador, his commitment to public service is both selfless and unrivaled. He truly embodies the Iowa Award, and I look forward to honoring him next month.”

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