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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Dr. William B. Walsh
(1920-1996)
WILLIAM B. WALSH, M.D.
Awarded by
President Ronald Reagan
June 23, 1987
Dr. William B. Walsh has spent a lifetime giving hope to others. For 14 years, in ports around the world, millions cheered the ship that Dr. Walsh's dreams launched, the S.S. Hope. Medical care and training--these were the Hope's cargo, together with a message of good will from all Americans. Today Project HOPE has stepped ashore, and Dr. Walsh is reaching people wherever there is need and, as always, is giving of himself so that others might find hope. He is a credit to his profession and to his country.
Dr. William Walsh founded Project HOPE (Health Opportunity for People Everywhere) in 1958 and has been serving as president and medical director since that time. He is also a clinical professor of internal medicine at Georgetown University . Dr. Walsh earned his B.S. degree in 1940 from St. John's University in New York and his M.D. degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1943. Dr. Walsh served in the United States Navy, 1941 - 1954. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in June 1987 and received the National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal in 1977. Dr. Walsh was born April 26, 1920 , in Brooklyn , NY . He is married, has three children, and resides in Bethesda , MD.
Health Opportunities for People Everywhere Since 1958
With far-flung business and government connections, Dr. Walsh and his closest supporters pulled together Project HOPE. They secured the transfer of the former Navy hospital ship, U.S.S. Consolation, raised private funds to refit it as the S.S. HOPE, persuaded the pharmaceutical industry to donate medicines, and reached hundreds of volunteer doctors, nurses, and public health workers who wanted to participate. All of these elements came together on September 22, 1960, when the ship left San Francisco, for Indonesia and Vietnam.
Dr. Walsh, project HOPE's founder and leader for thirty-four years, later received numerous honors from grateful countries.
S.S. HOPE in Saigon harbor, 1961, anchored as
Dr. Daut noted, "a grenade's throw from the
Majestic Hotel."
Voyages of S. S. HOPE,
1960-1974
The 15,000-ton ship had three operating rooms, a pharmacy, isolation ward, radiology department, and closed-circuit television so visiting local doctors and students could observe operations. The S.S. HOPE also carried its own freshwater plant the "iron cow"-- a machine that blended powdered milk and fats into 1,000 gallons of milk a day, for use on the ship and distribution among the malnourished at ports of call. The medical crew usually included 100 doctors and 150 nurses, whose main job was to teach American practices in specialties from neurosurgery and physical therapy to dentistry and public health. Many of the diseases and afflictions they encountered were rare in the United States.
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Medal History
