5 went on serve 14 years. From 1965 to 1968 John served with distinction as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, in my view the most difficult of all cabinet posts. After leaving the cabinet he became Chairman of the National Coalition and in 1970 founded Common Cause which he chaired until 1977. Subsequently he was a co-founder and first Chairman of Independent Sector, a national forum for organizations in the voluntary sector. Indicative of the very wide range of his talents and experience, John has been a consultant to the United Way and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as a board member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Air Force. He has been awarded honorary degrees and other awards too numerous to mention but conferred by such wide-ranging groups as the AFL-CIO, the National Academy of Sciences, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Board of Professional Psychology. He also was awarded in 1964 the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest Civil honor in the United States.