Tunheim Receives University's Outstanding Achievement Award

“Hubert would be really proud today of the school that bears his name. He was an educator at heart, and the Humphrey School is the legacy he so hoped for.” - Judge John R. Tunheim

Nominated by Humphrey School and Law School for service to the University, the legal profession, and the rule of law

Friends and colleagues joined The Honorable Judge John R. Tunheim on Monday evening, November 15, as he was awarded the University’s Outstanding Achievement Award. The award is the highest nondegree award conferred upon distinguished alumni by the University of Minnesota. It recognizes graduates or former students of the University who have attained unusual distinction in their chosen fields or professions, or in public service, and who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership on a community, state, national, or international level.

Tunheim, who is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, serves as chair of the Humphrey School Advisory Council and as a member of the Law School's Board of Advisors. The two schools jointly nominated Tunheim for the award, based on his remarkable legal career and contributions to emerging democracies in other parts of the world.       

Upon being presented with the award by Regent Clyde Allen, the former treasurer and vice president for business affairs for Concordia College in Moorhead, Tunheim’s undergraduate alma mater, Tunheim expressed his appreciation for the University:

“In everything I have done in my career, my Law School education has helped me immeasurably, and the fact that I had a U of M law degree has been a huge plus…

“And I have grown to truly love the Humphrey School. It is a wonderful gem of a public policy school that not only attracts exceptional students, but also embraces its important connection to the community…

“I am just old enough to have been around when the Institute was created as one of the ‘youngsters’ on Hubert Humphrey’s staff in the several years before he died.

Hubert Humphrey has left us an extraordinary legacy, of which the Humphrey School is a primary part. Hubert would be really proud today of the school that bears his name. He was an educator at heart, and the Humphrey School is the legacy he so hoped for.”