The award honors the legacy of former Park Hill United Methodist Pastor and founding member of the Park Hill Action Committee, Dr. J. Carlton Babbs.
Babbs was a minister at Park Hill United Methodist Church from 1955 until his death in 1978. He helped organize the Park Hill Action Committee and was a key supporter of integration in Park Hill. On the same Sunday in May of 1956, all of the ministers in the community preached sermons on the need to eliminate all the barriers to church membership and housing on the basis of race, sex or national origin.
The Park Hill Action Committee, organized and sponsored by these churches, subsequently became the Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. (GPHC). Historically, GPHC’s impact on integration, zoning, schools, justice and legislation for the community has been widely recognized. At the time of Dr. Babbs’ death, the clergy of Park Hill met and decided that a community service award in his memory would be a fitting tribute to one of the neighborhood’s outstanding leaders.
The following outstanding community members have received the Babbs Award in years past:
2021 – Rev. Nathan Adams
2020 – LeAnn Anderson
2019 – The Bresler Family
2018 – Blair Taylor
2017 – Claudia Fields
2016 – Lynn Kalinauskas
2015 – Heather Shockey
2014 – Kate Sultan
2013 – Bernadette Kelly
2012 – Tracey MacDermott
2011 – Lynn Smith
2010 – Susan Schneider Homiak
2009 – Lyle Hansen
2008 – Roberta Locke
2007 – Roz Wheeler-Bell
2006 – Bob Homiak
2005 – Linda L. Elliott
2004 – Geneva Goldsby
2003 – Sarah Lee Foster
2002 – Marietta “Jo” Mosby
2001 – Ann Long
2000 – Richard Pickett
1999 – Algene and Odell Holleman
1998 – Lewis and Bernice Watts
1997 – Dr. Robbie Bean
1996 – Patricia B. Clarke
1995 – Liz Kreider
1994 – Emmett F. Wallace
1993 – Cynthia C. Kahn
1992 – Gerald “Jerry” Kopel
1991 – William R. “Bill” Turner
1990 – Henry Turner
1989 – Mary Ann McClain
1988 – John and Gladys Bates
1987 – Art and Bea Branscombe
1986 – Karen Saliman
1985 – Issac and Marie White
1984 – Madeleine Hegarty
1983 – Marjorie Gilbert
1982 – Jules H. Mondschein
1981 – Helen B. Evans
1980 – Robert Hickman