SPOKANE, Wash. — Former Vice President Mike Pence will be on Gonzaga’s campus on September 10th to receive the Thomas S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service.
According to the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at WSU, the event will be held in the Hemmingson Center. There will be a VIP reception at 5 p.m. followed by a dinner at 6 p.m. College students can get tickets for $75. Tickets for the general public start at $250.
The Foley Institute says the Distinguished Service Award is “given to individuals who have demonstrated integrity, courage, and a commitment to democratic values in public service and whose body of work has had a lasting impact.”
“Vice President Pence has a long and distinguished history of public service and has continued to display that commitment since leaving public office,” said Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute. “In addition to his service as Vice President, his illustrious career includes governorship of the state of Indiana and twelve years serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. He demonstrated remarkable integrity, courage and a commitment to upholding democratic norms in the face of pressures to block or delay the certification of the 2020 election.”
The Foley Institute was established at WSU in 1995 to honor the lifetime of service by Thomas S. Foley. He was a Spokane native who represented the citizens of the 5th congressional district for 30 years. Foley served as the 49th Speaker of the House of Representatives and later served as U.S. ambassador to Japan. He remains the highest elected official ever to hail from Washington State.
The institute says its mission is to recognize his extraordinary legacy of public service and his belief that democracy requires an educated and informed public.
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