Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

Billy Frank Jr. (March 9, 1931 – May 5, 2014) was a Native American environmental leader and advocate for treaty rights. As a member of the Nisqually tribe, Frank led a grassroots campaign in the 1960s and 1970s to secure fishing rights on the Nisqually River, located in Washington state. His efforts centered around promoting cooperative management of natural resources. Frank served as the chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission for over thirty years.During the Fish Wars, Frank organized a series of "fish-ins." These events culminated in the landmark Boldt Decision, which affirmed that Washington state tribes were entitled to fifty percent of the annual fish harvest.In recognition of his contributions, Frank was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in November 2015. The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge was renamed in his honor in December 2015. Billy Frank Jr. continues to be considered to be a bridge between Western and Native American societies in regards to environmental sustainability.

David Allen Hamburg (October 1, 1925 – April 21, 2019) was an American psychiatrist. He served as president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1982 to 1997. He also served as the President of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He had also been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1998. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He had previously been chair of the department of psychiatry at Stanford. His wife, Beatrix Hamburg, followed a similarly successful career path. Their daughter, Margaret Hamburg, is a physician who has followed their footsteps into public service becoming Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in 2009. His son, Eric Hamburg, is an author, attorney and film producer in Los Angeles.
Hamburg was born in Evansville, Indiana. He was awarded the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1998, its most prestigious award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. In 2007 he and his wife received the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Award in Mental Health from the Institute of Medicine for their long careers in medicine and public service. He died in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2019 from ischemic colitis at the age of 93.

Eugene Murphy Locke (January 6, 1918 – April 28, 1972) was an American lawyer, businessman, politician, and diplomat from Dallas, Texas, who in 1967 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was ambassador to Pakistan in 1966-1967 and deputy ambassador to South Vietnam in 1967-1968 before becoming an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Texas in 1968.

Joseph Louis Rauh Jr. (January 3, 1911 – September 3, 1992) was one of the United States' foremost civil rights and civil liberties lawyers. In his early career, he served as a lawyer in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration and a clerk to Supreme Court justices Benjamin N. Cardozo and Felix Frankfurter. He co-founded the liberal organization Americans for Democratic Action, and was a key lobbyist for civil rights legislation from the 1940s to 1960s.
He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993.

Richard Lawrence Garwin (born April 19, 1928) is an American physicist, best known as the author of the first hydrogen bomb design.In 1978, Garwin was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributing to the application of the latest scientific discoveries to innovative practical engineering applications contributing to national security and economic growth.

James Edward Cheek (December 4, 1932 – January 8, 2010) was president emeritus of Howard University. He was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.

Mario Guerra Obledo (April 9, 1932 – August 18, 2010) was an American civil rights leader. He was called the "Godfather of the Latino Movement" in the United States, credited with establishing numerous civic institutions and bringing Latino interests into the center of the U.S. political arena. He also served as California's Secretary of Health and Welfare from 1975 to 1982.