Wall Street Journal - December 4, 2003
Bartley's Medal
We hope our readers will allow us a moment of pride and gratitude today as we extend our heartiest congratulations to Wall Street Journal columnist and Editor Emeritus Robert Bartley, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday by President Bush.
In bestowing the nation's highest civilian honor, Mr. Bush declared that "Robert L. Bartley is one of the most influential journalists in American history. As a reporter, author, editorial page editor, and columnist, he helped shape the times in which we live. A champion of free markets, individual liberty, and the values necessary for a free society, his writings have been characterized by profound insights, passionate convictions, a commitment to democratic principles, and an unyielding optimism in America. The United States honors him for his contributions to American journalism and to the intellectual and political life of our Nation."
Those Bartley hallmarks are well known to readers of these pages, which Bob supervised for 30 years before his retirement as editor in 2002. He still contributes his insight and knowledge of history through his Monday column, "Thinking Things Over," and as our mentor he continues to guide us through the occasional whitewater.
Bob joined the Journal as a reporter in 1962 and was drafted for the editorial page by Vermont Royster two years later. Though renowned around our offices for his taciturn ways -- which we attribute in part to his Iowa roots -- Bob has always known how to run with a story and turn a phrase.
He took the editorial page helm in 1972, a moment in American history when traditional values and verities were being questioned. Bob's great achievement was in sorting through that intellectual turmoil to locate and promote ideas that helped steer the country back to its founding strength and optimism. He championed the economic policies that broke the back of stagflation in the early 1980s, as well as the political and national security ideas that finally broke the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
Never one to boast about himself, Bob said yesterday that, "I am grateful and humbled to receive this recognition from the President." We couldn't be more delighted that President Bush has chosen to honor Bob's many contributions to American life.