Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 17, 1998
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

State's Medal of Merit awarded to four distinguished citizens

OLYMPIA - The highest honor awarded by the state to citizens whose extraordinary achievements have benefited others will be bestowed on four individuals during a special joint session of the Legislature on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 10 a.m.

Nobel Prize winning cancer researcher Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, apple industry leader Grady Auvil, renowned artist Jacob Lawrence, and the late businessman and civic leader Stan McNaughton will be awarded the Washington Medal of Merit. Gov. Gary Locke said the recipients have done much more than succeed in their careers. "These distinguished citizens have given selflessly of themselves to improve the lives of others."

The four honorees were selected from a field of 44 nominees. The selection committee included Gov. Gary Locke, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, Secretary of State Ralph Munro, Supreme Court Justice Gerry Alexander who represented Chief Justice Barbara Durham and House Speaker Clyde Ballard.

Dr. E. Donnall Thomas helped develop and perfect the bone marrow transplantation procedure that now saves thousands of lives. He was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize for Medicine, sharing it with Joseph E. Murray of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. In 1956, he was the first to show that bone marrow could be safely infused into a human patient. He was the first to treat acute leukemia patients with marrow transplantation.

In 1963, he organized and led the division of oncology at the University of Washington's School of Medicine. He directed the world's largest marrow transplant program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for 15 years. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is one of seven scientists in the world to receive the 1990 Gairdner Foundation International Award for contributions in the field of medicine, wrote an acclaimed textbook and has won numerous other awards.

Jacob Lawrence is a painter and University of Washington professor emeritus whose work is collected and shown by major museums and corporations across the nation and around the world. He is known for chronicling the American experience in human, rather than heroic terms and for making the African-American experience accessible and understandable. He was appointed full professor at the University of Washington in 1971 and taught there until 1984.

Lawrence's work has been the subject of three major retrospectives since 1960 and has been exhibited in such prestigious museums as the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He is known as a man with a strong sense of community and a modest sense of self. These beliefs have shaped the content of his work and the tenor of his teaching style. His numerous awards include the 1997 William O. Douglas Award from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Medal of Arts from President George Bush.

Grady Auvil co-founded Auvil Fruit Company in Orondo with his wife Lillie in 1928 and is a leader in the apple industry. He introduced new fruits such as the Fuji apple, which he calls the apple of the future, and Red Haven peaches, Red Globe nectarines, Rainier cherries and Granny Smith and Gala apples. He was instrumental in founding the grower-funded Washington State Tree Fruit Research Commission. Much of the commission's research is on alternatives to pesticides. He credits his company's growth and prosperity to his decades-long practice of sharing 30 to 40 percent of the company's profits with employees.

The late Stanley O. McNaughton was president and chief executive officer of PEMCO Financial Services for 30 years and was known for being unpretentious, friendly and compassionate toward others. McNaughton practiced a philosophy that corporations have a responsibility to raise the quality of life in the communities in which they do business. Under his leadership, PEMCO began a practice of donating five percent of its pre-tax profits to charities and gave more than 1,000 scholarships to students pursuing careers in education. McNaughton died four days after the committee selected him for a Medal of Merit. His wife, Clare, will accept the medal on his behalf. His son, Stan W. McNaughton, will deliver a brief acceptance speech.

Locke said the purpose of the medal of merit award goes beyond the effort to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions of the recipients. "These awards honor the best that is in each of us and challenge us all to reach for the greatness that today's Medal of Merit recipients have achieved," he said.

Only 14 Washingtonians have been honored with the prestigious Medal of Merit since the award was created by the Legislature in 1986. The Medal of Merit was last given in 1995.

» Return to this month's News Releases

» View News Release Archive