I ask everyone to pause for just a moment. Take a look around this room. Everyone here is building something that didn’t exist before. Places. Partnerships. Pathways. The work we do demands something very fundamental. It demands vision. The ability to see what others do not yet see. The courage to bring it to life. And the talent to shape and influence national policy.

Today, we honor a leader whose vision has helped all of us see further… think bigger… and build better.

Before I tell you who it is, I want to tell you about the kind of leader we are celebrating. First, this is someone who never traveled heavy. In his busiest years, as a young man — when most of us would pack half a closet — he could disappear for weeks with a suitcase so small it looked like he was headed out for a long weekend. Two suits. A few shirts. And somehow… ten different outfits. Always perfectly pressed — despite being rolled into what can only be described as a DuPont textile science experiment inside that suitcase. To this day, I’m convinced he knows something about fabric technology the rest of us don’t. Which, when you think about it, is exactly what great innovators do. They take limited raw material…apply creativity…and produce outcomes far greater than anyone thought possible.