On Friday, January 20, 2012, Bill Hudnut spoke on the delicate relationship between personal faith and public service. From minister to mayor, he says he dedicated himself to doing what he believed was right. Click here for a summary of his remarks and photos of the event.
Former four-term Mayor of Indianapolis and Congressman, author, public speaker, TV commentator, think tank fellow, elected official, and clergyman, Bill Hudnut is a Senior Fellow Emeritus at The Urban Land Institute (ULI) in Washington, DC, managing partner in his own consulting firm, Bill Hudnut Consultants, LLC, a faculty member at Georgetown University teaching courses at the graduate school level in real estate development, and an associate with SGBlocks LLC.
Hudnut is probably best known for his sixteen-year tenure as Mayor of Indianapolis,1976-1991. His stated goal was to build a "cooperative, compassionate and competitive" city. He established "a national reputation for revitalizing his Midwestern city," (The Washington Post) and came to be regarded as "an entrepreneurial leader willing to take prudent risks" (The Toledo Blade). He spearheaded the formation of a public-private sector partnership that led to Indianapolis's emergence during the 1980s as a major American city.
After leaving the Mayor’s office, Hudnut held posts at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis, and the Civic Federation in Chicago, before assuming his position with ULI in 1996. During that time, he was also a Fellow at the Institute for Politics at Harvard and then at the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis and served as President of the Civic Federation in Chicago from 1994-6.
Hudnut sponsored seventeen bills that became public law as a Congressman. He has recently stepped down as Mayor of Chevy Chase, MD and as a twenty year member of the Board of the National League of Cities. Through his writings and the programs he has organized, his work at ULI concentrated on promoting responsible leadership in the use of the land and in building vital, sustainable metropolitan areas.
Hudnut is the recipient of many awards, including Princeton University's highest alumni honor, the Woodrow Wilson Award for public service (1986); City and State magazine's "Nation's Most Valuable Public Official"(1988); the Rosa Parks Award from the American Association for Affirmative Action (1992); and the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns (1985).
