2010 Honoree – Norman Y. Mineta

Norman Mineta most recently served in President George W. Bush’s Cabinet as the United States Secretary of Transportation, the only Democratic Cabinet Secretary in the Bush administration. He was the longest-serving Transportation Secretary in the Department’s history. Mineta also served as President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce for the last six months of his term in 2000–2001. Save for a span of five days between the end of Clinton’s term and Bush’s appointments, Mineta spent nearly six full years as the first Asian American member of the US Presidential Cabinet. Mineta was also the first Asian American to be elected mayor of a major city in the mainland US–San Jose, and the first Asian American member of Congress.