GILROY— Just days remain to submit nominations for the newly resurrected Gilroy Hall of Fame.
The award has not been presented since 1994, but this year as many as six persons will be honored, according to Kurt Michielssen, senior vice president at Pinnacle Bank and a member of the Hall of Fame committee of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
“I have eight nominations in hand, it’s a good group, and I am expecting a few more,” he said.
The deadline for nominations is midnight Sept. 30. The Hall of Fame Committee will pick the honorees. Their names will be announced at an awards ceremony Nov. 7 at Old City Hall.
The 2015 inductees, will join 119 Gilroyans whose names appear two plaques that hang in the lobby of City Hall.
Gilroy’s Bob Dyer, of R.J. Dyer Real Property Investments, Inc., began the honor in the early 1980s.
Now 82, Dyer has been one of the moving forces in reviving the Hall of Fame, which is meant “to acknowledge those persons who have contributed to making Gilroy a better place to live,” according to the nominating papers.
They list eligibility requirements this way: “Individuals living or working in Gilroy for no less than twenty-five years selected for their creativity, inspiration, resourcefulness, dedication, volunteerism, philanthropy, leadership, courage and pioneering spirit, playing a significant role in the progressive development of Gilroy.”
Because the Hall of Fame has been inactive for more than two decades, organizers want to put it back in the spotlight, Michielssen said.
“One or two is not that much of a splash, five or six will make more of splash, and show people we really are getting this done,” he added.
Of the current nominees, Michielssen said most names are known to Gilroyans and include both the living and the dead.
The only living Gilroy Hall of Fame honoree is Sig Sanchez, former mayor, county supervisor and county water board director.
Others include John Cameron Gilroy, whose name the city bears, Francisco Perez Pacheco from 1790, whose name adorns a local pass, and Maria Ascencion Solarsano from 1846, who has a middle school named in her honor. Other recognizable names include cattle baron Henry Miller, rancher Fenton O’Connell, James Princevalle, Michael J. Filice and grower Kiyoshi Hirasaki.
Categories for nominees include Agriculture, Business, Community Service, Cultural, Professional, Education, Public Service, Political, Military and “other.”
Forms can be found under “Nomination Forms” on the homepage of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce website athttp://bit.ly/1Lg99LU. They also can be picked up and dropped off, at the Chamber office, 7471 Monterey Street, Gilroy or the Gilroy Historical Museum, 195 Fifth Street, Gilroy. Anyone interested may also contact Michielssen at ku**************@pi****************.com.
