The State of Pennsylvania’s highest award, the Meritorious Service Medal, was presented to Dr. Jonas Salk, discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine, at a special session of the State Assembly here yesterday. The presentation was made by Gov. George M. Leader who stressed that the honor was for Dr. Salk’s “historical medical” discovery.
The Pennsylvania Legislature will also honor Dr. Salk by establishing at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School a $25,000-a-year chair of Preventative Medicine. Dr. Salk will be named the first professor to hold the chair. He made his discovery while director of research in preventative medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
The citation presented to him with the medal, reads in part: “Dr. Salk’s achievement is meritorious service of the highest magnitude and dimension for the commonwealth, the country and mankind.” Pinning the medal on Dr. Salk, Gov. Leader said that as a parent of three children he was “humbly thankful” to the scientist and as Governor he was “proud to pay him tribute.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
