Skip to main content
Support
Article

Wilson Center Joins Nation in Mourning Death of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

The staff and scholars of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars join the nation in mourning the death of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. An exemplary scholar and public servant, Senator Moynihan is credited with being the most important individual in creating and supporting the Center and its work over a period of more than three decades. Moynihan died on March 26, 2003.

The staff and scholars of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars join the nation in mourning the death of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Senator Moynihan died on March 26, 2003.

Wilson Center President and Director Lee H. Hamilton said, “Pat Moynihan was one of the finest public servants I have had the privilege to know and work with. His remarkable achievements as a scholar, statesman and politician are without parallel. In the Wilsonian tradition, he was both an exemplary elected official, as well as a first-rate scholar. Pat’s eloquence, wit, prolific writing and scholarship were his trademarks, in an extraordinary career of public service spanning more than a half-century. He was a true credit to the people of this nation and his home state of New York, and he was beloved here at the Woodrow Wilson Center as the most important individual in creating and supporting the Center and its work over a period of more than three decades. This institution simply would not be what it is without him, and we honor his contribution and miss his presence. We extend our deepest condolences to Liz and the family.”

Senator Moynihan began his appointment at the Woodrow Wilson Center as a Senior Public Policy Scholar upon his retirement from the United States Senate in January, 2001. But his association with the Center started at its beginning. Senator Moynihan served on the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Study Commission in the administration of John F. Kennedy, which conceptualized the Center as an institution that would memorialize President Wilson by strengthening relations between the world of scholarship and world of public affairs. Senator Moynihan then helped craft the legislation that created the Center in 1968, and was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson as the first Vice Chairman of the Center’s Board of Trustees. For some four decades, he was the leading force behind the historic redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol in Washington D.C., and later promoted the construction of the Ronald Reagan Building, which provided a fitting permanent home for the Center.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living, national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds and engaged in the study of national and world affairs.