Talk:List of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

categories?
Is the medal actually awarded by category? "presidential medal of freedom in sports", etc? If not I don't see why we should have such categories here. In fact it would seem to be original research for us to go and assign such categories. Gjxj (talk) 19:23, 2 May 2019 (UTC)


 * You're clearly right. But it won't get changed unless someone boldly does so. -- Jibal (talk) 22:30, 6 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Without the categories this list has now become overly burdensome for the average user to look through, even though they may not be official categories they need to be brought back to increase the readability of the page. Enh1905 (talk) 14:47, 20 April 2020 (UTC) Enh1905


 * The list with the categories was actually easier to navigate and perceive. Perhaps, we could add short notes about what was each person's main activity? --Extended Cut (talk) 21:07, 3 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I understand what you're saying, but making up categories to sort the recipients by is OR/Synthesis. But I would support short descriptors such as : 'Athlete' or 'Politician' in the notes column, or in a renamed ref column. Would that make sense? ‡ Єl Cid of Valencia  talk  21:12, 3 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Such as: (note the renamed section)

‡ Єl Cid of Valencia talk  21:15, 3 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, that would be great. We can leave everything as it is and just add a column for occupation/activity. --Extended Cut (talk) 13:19, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

I definitely support adding a column for occupation. I removed the column for the president, since we already have them in sections for the president, making that column redundant. JDDJS ( talk to me  •  see what I've done ) 16:00, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Is it really not awarded by category? The reference in the External Links section (Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients, 1963–2002) has recommendations for medal recipients with explicit categories... --104.33.84.119 (talk) 03:29, 3 February 2021 (UTC)
 * On the 47th page of the PDF: "For your consideration to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom: Edward Teller, Ph.D., in the category of Science."
 * Starting on the 51st page of the PDF, there's a historical table with a column for category: "Aaron, Hank; President G. W. Bush; July 9, 2002; Athletics; Baseball player who holds record for most hom (sic) runs, RBIs, total bases"

With Distinction
Can somebody explain what it means to win the Medal of Freedom with distinction? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:2C7:67F:4200:453F:4BCF:F726:C622 (talk) 05:00, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
 * It's just a "higher level" of the award (bigger medal). Samer (talk) 06:28, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Posthumous JFK
Somebody made all of JFK's awards posthumous when several (all?) of them died after 1963. Can someone do the research and correct? Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tahowe (talk • contribs) 19:36, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

list partial?
The partial nature of this list article surprises me. Wouldn't a thing of this nature have extensive official records as easy sources?

What are the reasons Wikipedia can't offer a complete list of recipients?

CapnZapp (talk) 18:58, 6 November 2023 (UTC)


 * I have gone in and cleaned up the list a bit based on the comprehensive list of recipients published by the Congressional Research Service: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47639. See footnote 27: "To compile this list, CRS searched Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States volumes for 1963 to 2016, and the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents for 2017 to the present, for mentions of the medal. Additional recipients were identified using the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, contemporaneous news reports, and White House press releases. In compiling this list, CRS attempted to be thorough; however, the list of medals in this report may not be comprehensive." Bleubsdorf (talk) 16:19, 9 June 2024 (UTC)