As public servant and leader of industry, David Packard has rendered a lifetime of outstanding service to the United States and its citizens. In government service, in multiple fields of endeavor outside government and in service to his fellow countrymen, Mr. Packard has exemplified through his accomplishments in the national interest the ideals of West Point expressed in the motto, “Duty, Honor, Country.”

As co-founder and leader of one of the world’s foremost industrial organizations, Mr. Packard pioneered the development of electronic technology and of the management principles for moving that technology through engineering, production and distribution of electronics equipment. Through a wealth of knowledge in his field, his extraordinary administrative capacity, his determination to accomplish his objectives and his enlightened approach to industrial leadership, he has placed the United States in the vanguard of the science of electronics and has thus made a major contribution to the welfare and security of the nation.

As public servant, David Packard has continuously shared his remarkable capability for achievement with executives and workers in his own industry, with public and private organizations and with his fellow man. During the period he served as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, he brought to the enormous and complex Department of Defense that rarely seen faculty for resources management which had succeeded so well in industry. During that period he also made a meaningful and lasting contribution to military education through the establishment of the Defense Systems Management College and later through his role in the creation and development of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. In addition to his service to government, he has given selflessly of his time and energy to higher education, business, engineering and sports. Few Americans have made as significant a contribution to such a broad spectrum of American society.

Mr. Packard’s extraordinary achievements in the national interest, his dedication to the principles of selfless leadership, and his unqualified giving of his enormous talent to the national community are in the finest tradition of the West Point ideal of service to nation. Accordingly, the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy hereby presents the 1982 Sylvanus Thayer Award to David Packard.