Hord Foundation to honor Danbury couple

Author:    Brian Saxton
THE NEWS-TIMES
DANBURY -- A Danbury couple who have long supported a local nonprofit group dedicated to promoting education and enhancing career opportunities for blacks will receive the agency's most prestigious award. Donald Weeden, 76, and his wife Patricia, 69, will receive the Hord Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award at the foundation's annual gala in Danbury on Saturday.
The award was created four years ago to honor people who have provided exceptional support for the foundation and for the community.

"Without their involvement and support, there are literally hundreds of kids we would not have been able to help," founder Noel Hord said Monday. "This award recognizes their long-term commitment to the organization."
The foundation, established by Hord and his late wife, Cora, provides college and other post-secondary education scholarships, and education and career seminars.

The privately funded foundation has awarded more than $2.2 million in scholarships. Last year it gave a total $250,000 to 90 students from Danbury and eight surrounding towns.

For many years the foundation has worked in partnership with Western Connecticut State University's Upward Bound/CONNCAP program, which prepares middle and high school students for college.

Last month the foundation's work was recognized when it received the State of Connecticut Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission Community Service Award.

"We're both very proud to be a part of the work of the foundation," Donald Weeden said. "In terms of helping people, it does an extraordinary job in both encouraging them and in providing them with great incentives to improve their lives."

Patricia Weeden, who was born and raised in Danbury, is a former Realtor and has been a supporter of the foundation since its inception. She is presently a member of the foundation's board of advisory directors.
In the early 1960s, Patricia Weeden became active in the American civil rights movement and was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She currently serves on the development board of Danbury Hospital.

Donald Weeden, who grew up in Alameda, Calif., is a former U.S. Air Force pilot and has spent most of his working life with the family brokerage firm of Weeden Co., in San Francisco.

Weeden is also a former member of the WestConn Foundation and for 12 years was chairman of the Charles Ives Center for the Performing Arts in Danbury, where he met his wife in 1984.

The master of ceremonies at Saturday's gala will be Latanya Farrell of West Hartford, a teacher and singer and past foundation scholarship recipient. In 2003, Farrell was named WestConn's Educator of the Decade.

The gala begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Ethan Allen Hotel on Lake Avenue

Copyright, 2007, The News-Times (Danbury, CT)

Back to press coverage