Ronald Reagan San Quentin's gas chamber. When Reagan was governor in 1969, he signed the Family Law Act, which was an amalgam of two bills that had been written and revised by the California State Legislature over more than two years. It became the first no-fault divorce legislation in the United States. Years later, no-fault divorce became Reagan's greatest regret. Reagan's terms as governor helped to shape the policies he would pursue in his later political career as president. By campaigning on a platform of sending "the welfare bums back to work," he spoke out against the idea of the welfare state.
Ronald Reagan Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award. In 1981, Reagan was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the state's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in the area of Government. In 1983, he received the highest distinction of the Scout Association of Japan, the Golden Pheasant Award. In 1989, Reagan was made an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, one of the highest British orders (this entitled him to the use of the post-nominal letters "GCB" but, as a foreign national, not to be known as "Sir Ronald