11 to Receive Medal of Freedom

WASHINGTON —  President Bush has selected 11 leaders in the arts, sports, politics, science and business for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Friday.

Three of the recipients are receiving the nation’s highest civilian honor posthumously. The others are invited to accept their medals at a White House ceremony with the president on Wednesday.

Bush will award the medal to:

* John R. Wooden, the record-setting college basketball coach and teacher whose UCLA Bruins won 10 national championships in 12 years.

* Jacques Barzun, the former Columbia University professor and dean and scholar of modern European thought and culture. His books include “Race: A Study in Modern Superstition” and the more recent “From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life: 1500 to the Present.”

* Julia Child, the master chef, an author of numerous cookbooks and host of several television series.

* Roberto Clemente, the Hall of Fame baseball star from Puerto Rico who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Clemente, who had a lifetime batting average of .317 with 240 home runs and 1,305 RBIs, died in 1972 while delivering emergency relief to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

* Van Cliburn, who at the age of 23 won the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition held in 1958 in Moscow. He has performed around the world.

* Vaclav Havel, the dramatist and former president of the new Czech Republic who led the nation until this year. He was imprisoned in the former Czechoslovakia for his plays about Communist rule.

* Charlton Heston, the Academy Award-winning actor and political activist. His films include “The Greatest Show on Earth,” “El Cid,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Ben-Hur,” “The Ten Commandments” and “Planet of the Apes.”

* Edward Teller, the physicist who emigrated to America from his native Hungary to escape the rise of Nazi Germany. He worked on national defense projects such as the Manhattan Project.

* Dave Thomas, who created the Wendy’s restaurant chain. His restaurants, named after one of his daughters, was known for their square hamburger patties. The philanthropist who died last year was adopted as a child and was a lifelong advocate for adoption.

* Byron Raymond White, who served 31 years as a Supreme Court justice, was an All-American athlete and Rhodes Scholar who earned a Bronze Star in World War II. He played in the National Football League and led the league in rushing before working in civil rights as a deputy attorney general and earning a spot on the high court. He retired in 1993 and died last year.

* James Q. Wilson, who has written on the nature of morality, government and criminal justice. A professor at Harvard and UCLA, his books include “Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management of Law and Order in Eight Communities” and “The Moral Sense.”