WASHINGTON, DC.- Award-winning author and former director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Roger G. Kennedy was given the prestigious Henry Medal by the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents “in recognition of his many contributions to the Smithsonian Institution as the long-serving, transformational director of its National Museum of American History, and for his lifetime of service to the United States of America.” Kennedy embodied the Smithsonian’s mission to increase and diffuse knowledge with passion and persuasion, and highlighted key events in the nation’s history to explore America’s identity, according to Regents documents. Kennedy served as director of the National Museum of American History (then known as the Museum of History and Technology) from 1979 until 1992 when he became director emeritus. He worked to transform it into a modern American history museum, and it was renamed the National Museum of American History in 1980. Focusing on America’s di