The Benjamin Franklin Award For Outstanding Diplomatic Service To Bruce S. Gelb

The Council of American Ambassadors has established two Awards. The Benjamin Franklin Award for Outstanding Diplomatic Service was established in 1992. In 2013, the Council established the Henry L. Kimelman-Milton A. Wolf Award in memory of two distinguished leaders and founding members of the organization.

The Benjamin Franklin Award for Outstanding Diplomatic Service of the Council of American Ambassadors honors private citizens who answer the President’s call to serve the United States. It bears the name of Benjamin Franklin, America’s first citizen ambassador, as a tribute to the exceptional diplomatic tradition that he initiated.

The Council has bestowed this award on ten distinguished individuals, who exemplify the high standard of excellence and the ideals of foresight and perseverance that Franklin himself deemed essential for the successful conduct of public affairs.

Recipients of the Benjamin Franklin Award are:

President George H. W. Bush (presented on November 16, 1992)
The Honorable Michael J. Mansfield (presented on April 25, 1994)
The Honorable George S. McGovern (presented on April 29, 2003)
The Honorable Robert D. Stuart, Jr. (presented on April 29, 2003)
The Honorable James A. Baker, III (presented on May 6, 2008)
The Honorable William J. Vanden Heuvel (May 6, 2013)
The Honorable Keith L. Brown (May 6, 2013)
The Honorable Bruce S. Gelb (May 6, 2013)
The Honorable Henry L. Kimelman (presented posthumously on May 6, 2013)
The Honorable Ogden Reid (May 6, 2013)

The Council of American Ambassadors has established a new award in memory of two distinguished leaders and founding members of the organization. The Henry L. Kimelman ~ Milton A. Wolf Award honors Council members who have exercised outstanding leadership and made extraordinary contributions to the Council.

On May 6, 2013, Ambassadors Joseph B. Gildenhorn, Glen A. Holden and John L. Loeb, Jr., became the inaugural recipients of this award for advancing the Council's mission through exemplary leadership, active participation and steadfast support of the organization. It is fitting that Ambassadors Gildenhorn, Holden and Loeb, whose combined record of service to the Council of American Ambassadors exceeds seven decades, were the inaugural recipients of the Henry L. Kimelman ~ Milton A. Wolf Award.

Bruce S. Gelb is an accomplished business leader, diplomat, and philanthropist. He currently serves as chairman of the Council of American Ambassadors and on the Board of Trustees for the Diplomacy Center Foundation.

Bruce Gelb served in the George H. W. Bush administration as the director of the United States Information Agency from 1989 to 1991 and as the US ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium from 1991 to 1993. Before his government service, he was vice chairman of the Board of Bristol-Myers Company—now Bristol-Myers Squibb—with worldwide responsibility for the Company’s consumer products and health care businesses.

Ambassador Gelb has served as a member of President Bush’s Arts and Humanities Committee and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is also a former trustee of Howard University and a past board member of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

He continues his lifelong service in various capacities with the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club. He is a life trustee of Choate Rosemary Hall and a former board member of the United Nations Development Corporation. President George W. Bush appointed Ambassador Gelb to the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2003. He also served as president of the Wilson Council until 2006.

Ambassador Gelb was appointed commissioner for the United Nations, Consular Corps and International Business, by then-New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in 1994. Working in this capacity until 1997, Commissioner Gelb was responsible for the strategy and implementation of actions to bring international businesses to New York City and for retaining resident foreign companies, the United Nations, and its agencies.

After service in the US Navy, Ambassador Gelb received his BA degree in 1950 from Yale University. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1953 and has an honorary PhD from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He was married to Lueza Thirkield Gelb for 63 years and has four children and six grandchildren.

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