Hellard Award
 Nominations for the
2006 Vic Hellard, Jr.
Award have closed. The award is given at the Center’s annual conference and this year will
be presented November 14th in
Lexington, Kentucky.
Given in recognition of service in the interest of Kentucky’s
future, the annual award is being made in memory and in honor of Mr. Hellard’s long
and distinguished career of public service. As Director of the Legislative Research
Commission (LRC), Mr. Hellard was a tireless champion of legislative independence,
considered by many to be the cornerstone of modern governance in Kentucky. He is also
widely credited as the principal architect of the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research
Center. At the time of his death on September 17, 1996, Mr. Hellard, who had retired from
his LRC post, was still serving as a member of the Center’s Board, contributing
substantially to its guidance and to its efforts to shape a vision for the future of the
state and a system for evaluating progress toward its realization.
Previous winners of the Award are
Judge
Anthony M. Wilhoit, retired Chief Judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals
and now Executive Director of the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission; Joseph
W. Kelly, who served as chairman of the Kentucky Board of
Education from 1991 until April of 1998, a period of far-reaching change for
education in Kentucky; Mary Helen
Miller, a retired state government executive whose career began in the
classroom and went on to include high-level posts in both the legislative
and executive branches under two governors; veteran journalist Al
Smith, a former newspaper publisher, editor, and reporter, and one of
the state’s most engaging and enduring media personalities; renowned
state historian, the late Dr.
Thomas D. Clark, author of over 20 books, recipient of countless awards,
and the founder of the Thomas D. Clark Foundation, a private, nonprofit
foundation that provides financial support for the University Press of
Kentucky; Virginia G. Fox,
long-time Executive Director of Kentucky Educational Television and current
Kentucky Education Cabinet Secretary;
Walter
A. Baker, a Glasgow attorney with a reputation for public service that
has extended to the international stage;
Robert M. (Mike) Duncan,
an Inez banker with a national reputation for public service; and
William H. Hintze, Jr., a dedicated public servant
for 33 years who held the position of Deputy State Budget Director for the past five Kentucky Governors.
As prescribed by the Board, candidates for the Vic Hellard, Jr. award
should be individuals, from the public or private sector, who have provided sound
example and leadership that is likely to result in measurable or significant progress
toward those goals envisioned by Kentuckians as set forth in Center publications focusing
on Kentucky’s future, and who has shown a consistent commitment to one or more of the
following criteria:
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Demonstrates vision | , taking into consideration the long-term implications of
activities and policies in order to promote the common good and the public welfare; |
