My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

And he shows just as much zest in presenting his views at New
York University and· other American forums as he did in his native
Vienna so many years ago.
Lu's friends honored him with an anniversary dinner, this time
arranged by Larry Fertig in the New York University Club.Approximately
200 guests attended. Hayek was chairman, and Bettina
Bien gave Lu, as a special present, a leather-bound copy of her
bibliography of his work. T'he Mont Pelerin Society published a
special Quarterly Journal, edited by Hunold, as a tribute to Lu,
with contributions by Hazlitt, Fertig, Hunold, Haberler, Felix
Kaufmann and Roepke.
In 1962 Austria awarded Lu another distinction. According to an
Austrian information sheet of October 31, 1962, "The Austrian
Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Wilfried Platzer, presented
the Austrian Medal of Honor for Science and Arts (Oesterreichisches
Ehrenzeichen fuer Wissenschaft und Kunst) to Dr. Ludwig
von Mises on behalf of Austrian Federal President Adolf
Schaerf. The award expresses Austria's gratitude to her son for his
distinguished activities as scholar and teacher and for his internationally
recognized work in the fields of political science and
economics."
Ambassador Platzer invited us to a luncheon in Washington, arid
many of our friends and former students of Lu attended this party.
The medal of honor is the highest decoration that Austria can
bestow"on one of her sons," such a distinction that it is only lent
to the person so honored, for when he receives it, he gets at the
same time a printed request to have it returned to Austria after his
death.
In 1963 NewYork University awarded Lu an honorary doctorate
of law, and the Wall Street]oumalreported:
Of all the academic honors bestowed this month, as tradition prescribes,
one struck us as particularly noteworthy. It was presented by
New York University to Ludwig von Mises, the Austrian-born economist,
long since U.S. citizen, now 81 years old. The citation is selfexplanatory:
"Author of literally hundreds of books and articles, his major
works are recognized as classics of economic thought. He has
brought one of the most powerful minds of his age to bear on his
subject and has clarified it with philosophic conscience and a scientific
integrity of a rare order....
"He is an eloquent scholar, a scholar's scholar, and the force of his
ideas has been multiplied manyfold by the able economists he has
trained and influenced. For his great scholarship, his exposition of
the philosophy of the free market, and his advocacy ofa free society,
he is here presented with our Doctorate of Law."
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