The Community Foundation administers a number of special awards to recognize achievement and dedication in our community.

In late 1995, classmates from the Princeton University Class of 1942 together with 16 local organizations established the Leslie “Bud” Vivian Memorial Fund at the Princeton Area Community Foundation to honor the memory of their friend and colleague. This memorial endowment is intended to promote in perpetuity the principles by which Bud lived, and to recognize his important contributions to the Princeton community. Bud Vivian served as Princeton University’s Director of Community and Regional Affairs for many years and his concern for his neighbors extended into all corners of the town.

The Fund makes an award annually to a member of the community who has volunteered or worked for many years to benefit Princeton’s citizens, and has demonstrated the qualities which Bud possessed and shared so fully:

• the ability to see the need for community action to resolve a problem of human need;
• the ability to identify and define a problem in terms that make it understandable to those most able to solve it;
• the ability to bring different parties together to find a solution, with the knack for generating constructive compromise, and;
• the perseverance and dedication to carry solutions through to successful completion.

A grant from the Fund is made each year to one or more local nonprofit organizations suggested by the award recipient.

Guidelines for Nominations
Submit a letter of nomination highlighting the qualities and accomplishments of your nominee. Please include written letters of support from other individuals to help inform the selection committee. Nominations and supporting documents must be sent to the Princeton Area Community Foundation. A winner will be chosen by the Vivian Award Selection Committee.

Leslie “Bud” Vivian Memorial Award Winners

• 1996 – Marcy Crimmins, Executive Director, Housing Authority of Princeton
• 1997 – A.C. Reeves Hicks, attorney and community volunteer
• 1998 – Hank Pannell, Housing Authority of Princeton
• 1999 – Jocelyn Helm, founding Executive Director, Princeton Senior Resource Center
• 2000 – Harriett Bryan & Ted Vial, affordable housing advocates
• 2001 – Harry Levine, Princeton Public Library Chair
• 2002 – Pat Van Ness, Kindergarten teacher, Princeton Regional Schools
• 2003 – Claire Jacobus, community volunteer
• 2004 – William F. Johnson, Principal, John Witherspoon Middle School
• 2005/06 – Anne Reeves, founding Executive Director, Arts Council of Princeton
• 2006/07 – Karl Light, Princeton Community Housing
• 2008 – Sarah Hirschman, founder, People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos
• 2009 – Shirley Satterfield, educator and community volunteer
• 2010 – James A. Floyd, community advocate and volunteer
• 2011 – Jack Roberts, Executive Director of the Princeton Recreation Department
• 2012 – Herbert W. Hobler and Ray Wadsworth, Spirit of Princeton Committee
• 2013 – Mark Freda, former Borough Council president and volunteer firefighter, Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad
• 2014 – Nancy Beck, Princeton Adult School
• 2015 – Rev. David McAlpin, founder of Habitat for Humanity-Trenton and former associate pastor at Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church
• 2016 – Bill Wakefield, former board member of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF) and IRATE/First Friends; LALDEF volunteer; Chair of the Presbytery of New Brunswick’s Mass Incarceration Task Force; member of the Paul Robeson House Board of Directors and the Immigration Committee of the Princeton Human Services Commission 
• 2017-  Carol Golden honored with the Annual Leslie “Bud” Vivian Award for Community Service
• 2018 – Marvin and Ingrid Reed
• 2019 – Fern and Larry Spruill