(Des Moines) Gov. Reynolds today announced she will present former Governor of Iowa and U.S Ambassador to China Terry Branstad the Iowa Award in a ceremony at the Iowa State Capitol on Thursday, December 11, 2025, at 11:00 a.m.
The Iowa Award is the state’s highest citizen award. The Iowa Centennial Memorial Foundation, established in 1948 by Governor Robert D. Blue and the Iowa Legislature, created the award. The foundation wished “to encourage and recognize the outstanding service of Iowans in the fields of science, medicine, law, religion, social welfare, education, agriculture, industry, government, and other public service” and to recognize the “merit of their accomplishments in Iowa and throughout the United States.”
“No one is more deserving of this honor than Terry Branstad, a native son who grew up here, was educated here, farmed here, and spent his life serving his fellow Iowans and Americans here and abroad,” stated Governor Kim Reynolds. “A state legislator, lieutenant governor, the longest serving governor in our nation’s history, and a U.S. ambassador, his commitment to public service is both selfless and unrivaled. He truly embodies the Iowa Award, and I look forward to honoring him next month.”
Previous Iowa Award recipients include:
1951- President Herbert Hoover (engineer, humanitarian, author, and U.S. president)
1955- Jay N. Darling (cartoonist, conservationist, Pulitzer Prize winner)
1961- Frank Spedding (educator, chemist, worked on the first atomic bomb)
1961- James Van Allen (educator, physicist, rocket space exploration)
1966- Henry A. Wallace (U.S. secretary of agriculture, vice president of United States)
1970- Mamie Eisenhower (first lady, wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower)
1975- Karl King (composer, bandmaster)
1978- Norman Borlaug (crop geneticist, worked to end hunger, won Nobel Peace Prize)
1980- Monsignor Luigi Liguitti (director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference)
1984- George Gallup (founder of the Gallup Poll)
1988- Meredith Willson (composer, musician)
1992- Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (leader in suffrage movement and for world peace)
1996- Simon Estes (international opera singer)
1999- Maurice Lasansky (artist, educator)
1999- John Atanasoff (physicist, mathematician, educator, inventor, 1st electronic digital computer)
2001- John Ruan (innovative entrepreneur, philanthropist, World Food Prize sponsor)
2002- George Washington Carver (internationally renowned scientist and humanitarian)
2005- Robert D. Ray (governor, statesman, mayor, university president, lawyer, insurance executive)
2006- Harry Hopkins (founder of WPA under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman)
2009 – Grant Wood (Artist)
2011 – William C. “Bill” Knapp (philanthropist, business and community leader)
2012 – Richard “Dick” Jacobson (transportation pioneer, entrepreneur, philanthropist)
2014 – Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn (humanitarian, diplomat, combat veteran)
2016 – John Pappajohn (entrepreneur, business leader, and philanthropist)
2018 – Robert N. Noyce (physicist, entrepreneur, and inventor)
