THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995 TAG: 9509130452
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
James W. Rouse, the urban designer whose firm developed Norfolk's Waterside, is among 12 people who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
President Clinton will present the medals Sept. 28.
Rouse was selected for bringing new life to inner cities with his projects. He is chairman of the Maryland-based Enterprise Development Corp., which built Waterside in 1983.
Since crafting the first urban marketplace in Boston in the mid-1970s, Rouse has dotted the nation with downtown retail and entertainment centers. He also founded the nonprofit Enterprise Foundation to help produce low- and moderate-income housing.
Among the other winners is former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who was selected for consistently ``putting sound medical advice ahead of ideology,'' the White House said Monday in a statement.
Posthumous awards went to Walter P. Reuther, the outspoken United Auto Workers president who crusaded against communism, corruption and racism; and to Willie Velasquez, founder of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, whose advocacy helped to nearly double the number of Latino elected officials nationwide.
Other honorees are:
Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children's Television, for being ``a tenacious advocate'' of removing violence from children's shows.
William T. Coleman Jr., former transportation secretary and chairman of the board of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, for efforts to ensure equal opportunity.
Joan Ganz Cooney, founder of the Children's Television Workshop, for setting a standard with ``Sesame Street.''
John Hope Franklin, black historian, for his work highlighting the history of the South and the roles of black Americans in the nation's development.
U.S. Court of Appeals Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., civil rights attorney and professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, for his commitment to equal and civil rights.
U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr., who ruled in 1956 that the segregated bus system in Montgomery, Ala., was unconstitutional, for his efforts to dismantle segregation and protect the rights of prisoners and mentally ill people.
Former Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., creator of Earth Day, for his environmental activism.
Hollywood studio executive Lew R. Wasserman, for his contributions on behalf of the blind and visually impaired. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
James W. Rouse: Honored for bringing life to inner cities with
housing and with retail and entertainment centers.
by CNB