Last year, the University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Committee established the Rosa L. Parks Award for Meritorious Service to the Community.
Margaret Bush Wilson received the inaugural award, and this year, two more recipients were recognized in a Jan. 15 ceremony in Graham Chapel.
Chancellor Emeritus William H. Danforth and James E. McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, were honored.
“The award was created to honor the life of the late Rosa L. Parks due to her (then) recent passing,” said committee chair Harvey R. Fields Jr., Ph.D., assistant director of academic programs for Cornerstone: The Center for Advanced Learning.
“The inaugural recipient was Mrs. Margaret Bush Wilson. We wanted to have a special speaker for the 2006 event and decided on Mrs. Wilson. We were able to obtain her agreement to speak publicly with the help of Professor John Baugh, the inaugural Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences.”
And that first selection led directly to the selection of this year’s recipients.
Wilson was asked to speak, but was not aware she’d be receiving the award. When explained what the award was for — generally presented to someone with strong University affiliations — she immediately thought McLeod would be a good choice.
Unbeknownst to her, though, she had already been selected for the 2006 award. And when it came time to select the 2007 recipients, Fields and the rest of the committee recalled Wilson’s recommendation. Danforth’s name also came up.
“From there it became quite obvious that, based on the criteria, they both would be worthy recipients, and that was the proposal for the 2007 event,” Fields said.
“When the 2007 committee came together, this decision was, as appropriate, revisited and enthusiastically agreed to again. Thus, that is how the decision was made to present the award to Chancellor Danforth and Dean McLeod.”
The award’s charter, reads in part: “The award, herewith, will only be presented during the Danforth Campus annual Martin Luther King Commemoration Celebration, and only when the Danforth Campus Commemoration Committee deems that a nominee, who exhibits the same character, conscious and courage of Mrs. Rosa L. Parks, who has given a lifetime of service to the community, whose efforts have had impact far beyond the immediate circumstance, and who has served without striving for personal gain, is worthy of this singular honor.”