Amory Houghton, Jr., La Médaille d’Or de la Renaissance Française

Amo Houghton, 83, has served as a United States Representative from the State of New York, 29th Congressional District. Mr. Houghton was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired the Oversight Subcommittee and was a member of the Trade Subcommittee. He was also a member of the International Relations Committee, vice chairman of its Subcommittee on Africa, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the Congressional Delegate to the 58th General Assembly of the United Nations.

Mr. Houghton is the founder of the John Quincy Adams Society and is also a founding member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Mr. Houghton was also co-chairman of the Washington-based Faith and Politics Institute. The only former CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation to serve in the House, Mr. Houghton joined Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated) in 1951 after graduating from Harvard University and serving as a Marine during World War II.

Reflecting the legacy of his father, who had been Ambassador to France, Congressman Houghton led other elected representatives in the United States in establishing the Congressional French Caucus which continues to support French-American friendship today. He has been recognized with France’s highest award – La Légion d’Honneur.

Rebecca M. Valette, La Médaille d’Or de la Renaissance Française

Rebecca M. Valette is Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages at Boston College. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado and was granted an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College. In the course of her career, Dr. Valette has served as national president of the American Association of Teachers of French, president of the Alliance Française of Boston, and vice president of the Federation of Alliances Françaises, USA.

A specialist in foreign language methodology, she has written and lectured extensively in this field. With her husband, she has authored several series of highly successful programs for the teaching of French in American secondary schools and universities.

In recognition of her work in promoting French language and Francophone culture in the United States, the French Government has named her Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite. Last fall she received the Saint Boniface Haiti Foundation Humanitarian Award for her support of the Fond des Blancs community in Haiti.

Robert L. Miller, Médaille d’Or du Mérite Francophone

Robert L. Miller attended the Collège Stanislas and the University at Nanterre, where he obtained a Licence in history. He has an M.A. from Middlebury College and has pursued doctoral studies at New York University.

He is the founder of Enigma Books and an editor and translator from French into English of J.B. Duroselle, France and the Nazi Threat (La Décadence 1932-1939); Georges Poisson, Hitler’s Gift to France: The Return of the Remains of Napoleon II (Le Retour des cendres de l’Aiglon); and Paul Aussaresses, The Battle of the Casbah (Services spéciaux Algérie 1955-1957), among others.

He has lectured on Book TV on the topics of “The Battle of Algiers and Terrorism” and “FDR and Decolonization”; and in Paris on “Les États Unis et la décolonisation 1943-1963” at the Académie des sciences d’outre-mer. An article by the same title was published in 2009 in the Bulletin de l’Académie des sciences d’outre-mer. He lives in New York City.

Mr. Miller has just been commissioned by the Fondation Charles de Gaulle to translate into English the Catalogue du Mémorial Charles de Gaulle at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises.