2005 Sylvanus Thayer Award

CITATION

SANDRA DAY O´CONNOR

A personage of great distinction, Sandra Day O´Connor has proved herself an American citizen of the finest kind through her extraordinary lifetime devoted to public service. Her steady determination, her deep wisdom, her wholesome pragmatism, and her refusal to be the slave of any ideology have informed every aspect of her professional life.

As an Arizona assistant attorney general, senator, and judge, she made an indelible mark on the legal history of her native state, and a brilliant one it was. Then, as the first female Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court she has done the same thing, but now on the national scale and for nearly a quarter century.

The superb accomplishments of this daughter of the Nation´s southwest have earned her a permanent place in the pantheon of American jurists, and she is a living exemplification of the ideals expressed in West Point´s motto – Duty, Honor, Country. Accordingly, the Association of Graduates is pleased to present the 2005 West Point Sylvanus Thayer Award to Justice Sandra Day O´Connor.