Pa Senator Hardy Williams To Receive
Service Leadership Award And Give Lectures Sept. 18, 19.
9-11-96
University Park, Pa. -- State Senator Hardy Williams, who serves the 8th Senatorial District including Philadelphia, has received the "Nittany's Pride: The Journey Back" award for service leadership, sponsored by Attorney Edgar Snyder in cooperation with Penn State's AT&T Center for Service Leadership, a division of Student Affairs.
Williams has distinguished himself as a champion of youth, senior citizens and the poor with special interests and leadership in public health issues. He is chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, and will be on campus Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 18 and 19, to share his experiences with faculty, staff and students.
He will give a talk on "Education: Your Passport to an Uncertain Future," for a number of student service organizations, such as the Black Caucus, Omega Psi Phi and the National Panhellenic Council, on Sept. 18. On Sept. 19, he will teach a class on Blacks in the 20th Century in the African and African American Studies Program.
Winners of this award are Penn State graduates who have demonstrated leadership and service in their communities. In addition to his responsibilities as a senator, Williams has paved the way for other African Americans to enter government, and in 1972 organized the Legislative Black Caucus. He continues to speak out against injustice and attacks on African American families, initiating such programs as the Crisis Intervention Network, Black Family Services, Inc., Blacks Networking for Progress, Inc., the Delaware Valley Ecumenical Council and the African American Delaware Valley Port Corporation.
At Penn State, Williams, who was the first African American player on the basketball team, went on to captain the championship teams of the early 1950s. He graduated in 1952 with a bachelor of science degree in political science and history, (served two years as a First Lieutenant in the Korean Conflict), and received a Doctorate of Jurisprudence in 1957 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
After working as a trial lawyer for a law firm and for the City of Philadelphia, Hardy established his own practice in 1968 as a trial lawyer in civil and criminal law and is active in both federal and state legal systems.
In 1971 he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 191st Legislative District and served until 1982 when he was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate. Williams also served on the Penn State Board of Trustees from 1972 to 1975.
In the Senate, in addition to being chair of the Public Health and Welfare Committee, he also is minority chair of the Committee on Urban Affairs and Housing, chairs the Philadelphia Senate Delegation and serves on the Game and Fisheries, Intergovernmental Affairs and Local Government Committees, the State Planning Board, the Primary Health Practitioners Program Advisory Committee, the Lincoln University Board of Trustees and the Committee on Health of the Eastern Regional Conference of the Council of State Governments.
Editors, for more information, contact Melissa Frank-Alston, AT&T Center
for Service Leadership at (814) 863-4624.
Contact:
Christy Rambeau (814) 865-7517 office or e-mail at cmr7@psu.edu