In tribute to a singular life of distinct accomplishment, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Service at Syracuse University will give the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Spirit of Public Service Award to individuals and organizations whose contributions to the public good reflect the characteristics, interests, and dedication to public service demonstrated so brilliantly by the late Senator throughout his celebrated career.

Statesman, diplomat, scholar, intellectual, historian, and politician, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a universally respected and celebrated public figure in the worlds of politics, academia, and public affairs. His wide-ranging interests, nearly limitless mastery of public issues, and clear-eyed and pragmatic approach to addressing domestic and international challenges established him as both an innovative thinker and a tireless doer for the public good. His contributions in the formation of public policy, rational and equitable governance, civility, and informed public discourse were numerous and insightful. He is remembered for his ability to identify and focus upon issues that were not yet noticed and which soon became the center of national attention; and his skill at spanning ideological argument to find consensus. His rare capacity to convert insight into action mirrors the blending of theory, policy, and practice that is a point of pride for the Maxwell School, where Senator Moynihan twice belonged to the faculty.

Award Criteria

Recipients of the Moynihan Award will exemplify, in their deeds, the Maxwell School’s mission of understanding, celebrating, and ultimately empowering the sort of far-reaching contributions to public life that were Senator Moynihan’s legacy and that Maxwell holds as its highest ideal. Recipients will be found both within and outside the immediate community of Maxwell School alumni and scholars.

Awardees will be motivated by empathy, altruism, and an innate drive to improve the lot of others. They will be passionate, capable, and committed to public enterprise. They may be practitioners, experts, or citizens. They may work in the public or private sector or within their community.

Some work to advocate, inspire, and enfranchise. Others innovate around specific problems or challenges. Still others bring to bear the highest potential for sound public management within governmental or socially oriented organizations.

In any setting, they will have enabled transformative progress or innovation for a large community; a population bound by need or aspiration; a city, nation, or the world. The benefits of their work have been felt already by many — or likely shall be felt by many, owing to the ripple-effect implications of their impact.

Industrious, purposeful, and committed to a particular public challenge, these individuals and organizations seldom attain broad, popular recognition. As such, recipients of the Moynihan Award are often little known by the average citizen. They are unsung heroes, but heroes of the highest order for anyone who values the pursuit of public, civic, and communal goals.