Black-tie affair honors government's distinguished executives

The Senior Executives Association and its Professional Development League honored the 69 civil servants awarded the 2004 Presidential Rank Awards Thursday evening during a ceremony and dinner at the State Department.

The awards, given each year, reward senior professionals and senior executives for "exceptional long-term accomplishments." Winners receive a bonus of 35 percent of their base pay.

In announcing the winners, association president Carol Bonosaro said that the recipients had saved the government $311 billion through efforts to improve government management.

She highlighted a sampling of their accomplishments, noting that one winner had discovered "a unique bacterium in plants which revolutionized thinking about bacterial structures and which was later implicated in mad cow disease and in human diseases such as the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jacob brain disease." Another, she said, had restored "his general counsel operations within a week after American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon just two floors beneath his office." A third had found "an alternative power supply for southern Manhattan after 9/11, enabling the resumption of function of the U.S. stock markets and the Federal Reserve Bank within three days."

Joanne Simpson, a retired senior professional at NASA, received a standing ovation for her six-decade career. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology; her research in that area continues to impact weather forecasting today.

Energy Secretary Samual Bodman delivered the keynote address, discussing the history of the civil service.

The winners were:
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Robert E. Davis
W. Ron DeHaven
Patrick C. McCaskey
Kevin Shea

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Thomas L. Mesenbourg Jr.
Mary C. Pleffner
Barbara A. Retzlaff
James. L. Taylor
David J. Wineland
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Robert K. Dixon
Paul Michael Golan
James S. Hirahara
Michael A. Kilpatrick
John R. Sullivan

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Thomas A. Gustafson
Richard J. Jackson

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Joseph J. Angelo
J. Richard Berman
Douglas M. Browning
Kay Frances Dolan
Gregory L. Giddens

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
W. Hord Tipton III

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
John C. Keeney

DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
Evelyn A. Petschek
Mary Beth Shaw

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Lawrence A. Biro
Kenneth J. Clark

AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
John M. Streufert

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Geoffrey H. Grubbs
Margo T. Oge

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
Anthony E. Costa

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Orlando Figueroa
Jon C. Harpold
James W. Kennedy
David A. King
Joanne Simpson

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Thomas N. Cooley

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
Ronald S. Battocchi

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Paul E. Bird
William D. Travers

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Keith J. Fontenot

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Stephen C. Benowitz

PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION
William G. Beyer
Joseph H. Grant

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Thomas A. Dumaresq
Francisco A. Marrero

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Felicita Sola-Carter
Dale W. Sopper