Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Alan Solomont (A '70) during a Feb. 21 Pentagon ceremony received the Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States Navy.
Solomont was presented with the award by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who had first notified Solomont last summer that he was to be honored when he returned to the country after serving as a U.S. Ambassador to Spain from 2009 to 2013.
"I was speechless," Solomont said. "I really was. I was blown away. It was such an incredible surprise and honor."
Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Admiral James Stravridis and Solomont's wife Susan Lewis Solomont (G '81) attended the Pentagon ceremony.
"The ceremony itself was very moving, and [was] presided over by the Secretary of the Navy himself, the Honorable Ray Mabus," Stravridis told the Daily in an email. "He spoke about Ambassador Solomont and his work in Madrid, and before the ceremony he hosted a personal and intimate lunch for the ambassador and his wife, Susan."
At the ceremony, Mabus recognized Solomont for his work on a key military agreement with Spain. According to Solomont, the plan included stationing U.S. Navy destroyers in southern Spain as part of a missile defense shield for all of Europe to protect against ballistic missiles from rogue nations like Iran and North Korea.
"We worked closely together on ensuring that our Spanish allies would invite us to permanently ... station four Arleigh-Burke Aegis Destroyers in Rota, Spain," Stravridis said. "This required exceptional diplomatic skill on the part of Ambassador Solomont, who was the leader of this vital effort."
Solomont explained that his interest in public service began during his own time as an undergraduate at Tufts. As a student during the 1960s, Solomont said he saw issues such as the Vietnam War and civil rights struggles politicized on campus.
"[I] began to realize that we have responsibilities beyond ourselves, and we can really influence big issues by banding together," he said. "When I left Tufts, I was a community organizer for a bunch of years. Even though I've done a bunch of different things in my life, the one consistency was being engaged both in politics, but also [doing] other kinds of community work."
According to Solomont, about one-third of the U.S.'s ambassadors are not Foreign Service officers, but citizen diplomats, a category into which he would place himself.
"When I was nominated to be ambassador, and I had to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as part of my confirmation, [and] I said to them, 'I come before you at an auspicious moment in our country's history when the President and the Congress have asked ordinary citizens to roll up their sleeves to solve the problems of our communities, the nation and the world. I come before [you] as one of those citizens, nothing more and nothing less.' What I was really saying is, 'I'm a citizen-diplomat,'" Solomont said. "This was actually the only time in my life when I did full-time public service as my work. I've done a lot of things on a volunteer basis, but this was a very special experience."
Solomont said that he was honored to receive the award from someone he has gotten to know personally. Mabus and Solomont met through a mutual friend in the Boston area, and Solomont said that Mabus visited him while he was serving in Spain.
"We just took to each other," he said. "[Mabus] happens to be an incredible human being and an incredible public servant. I [had] a deep affection for the man and an admiration to begin with, and then he calls me and tells me that [I was receiving the award] and that just blew me away."
Concluding his speech at the Pentagon ceremony, Solomont expressed his extreme gratitude.
"I am deeply honored to receive this award for Distinguished Public Service," he said in his remarks. "I accept it with great humility and as a sign that [I] have joined the community to which most of you already belong. And with that membership comes the responsibility to value our men and women in the armed forces, in the Foreign Service and throughout our government - to support them and to tell their story to the rest of America."
While he insists that he was simply doing his job, Solomont said that the opportunity to fully engage with the public and a desire to collaborate with others is what led to his successes.
"I'm enormously flattered to be recognized," he said. "I know that what we did was important, but it was a team effort. I think what I learned in my service is what incredible work our Foreign Service does, our embassies do overseas and our men and women in uniform do. I don't think I had any full appreciation for [what] the work they do [means] to our security and our prosperity. This made me feel a part of that community, which feels very good."
Stravridis said that the award is an incredible recognition and one accurately bestowed on Solomont.
"In any given year, there are only a few individuals so recognized," Stravridis said. "This award is a very high honor indeed and richly deserved by Ambassador Solomont, [who is] a superb diplomat and an exceptional patriot."
