The namesake of the Arlington Community Foundation’s annual William Newman, Jr., Spirit of Community Awards may be gone, but the legacy of the late Judge Newman will live on.
“His work isn’t ending,” said foundation board chair Deb Gandy. “It’s beginning again in every person who sees a need and steps toward it.”
Newman, who served on both the County Board and Circuit Court and founded the Arlington Community Foundation in 1991, died in February. To mark his legacy, the foundation bestowed the annual Spirit of Community Award on him posthumously.
“He challenged each of us to step up and move our community forward,” foundation CEO Jennifer Owens said at the annual awards luncheon, which drew nearly 600 attendees on Nov. 12.
With Newman’s death, “it’s up to us — to show up, to meet challenges,” Owens said.
“So many people in our community are in crisis right now, and they need us to show up,” she said.
At the luncheon, Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Ferguson read a letter from Newman’s widow, Sheila Johnson-Newman, thanking the organization for its tribute.
“If there’s one thing Bill taught me, it was the enormous power of good people — people just like yourselves,” she wrote. “I would like to thank you on his behalf for making his dream a reality.”
Also at the luncheon, Devanshi Patel was honored with the Spirit of Stewardship Award and Alejandra Underwood received the Spirit on the Rise Award.
Feeling unfulfilled in her work as an attorney, Patel now leads the Arlington-based Center for Youth and Family Advocacy.
“I want to work in a space where we can make true systemic change,” Patel said. “If we let young people lead, they are going to show us new things.”
Patel said her efforts were designed to support those like her son, Kingston.
“The person I strive to be is someone that my son can be proud of,” she said.
Underwood is a native of Honduras who met her husband, Tim, while working on a military base there.
In 2009, she said, “I packed my life in two suitcases” and moved to the United States. She soon found a home in Arlington.
“I really fell in love with the community when I started working on Columbia Pike,” Underwood said, noting her service as a business-engagement specialist with the Columbia Pike Partnership.
Now serving in a constituent-services role with the county manager’s office, Underwood said she strives to be “the eyes and the ears” of those interacting with the local government.
“It’s very complex to navigate,” she said. “Imagine [the complexities] for someone who doesn’t speak the language.”
Underwood’s advice for those who want to become more ingrained in their community through volunteering was simple. “Start very small and very local,” and build on that, she said.
Civic activist Joan Cooper was the first to receive the Spirit of Community Award in 1993. Subsequent recipients have included:
- 1990s: H. Paul Mount, Anna Barber, Elizabeth Campbell, Walter Tejada, John McCracken
- 2000s: Julia Connally, Charles Overby, Jennie Davis, Jean Berg, Eric Schaeffer, Ralph Johnson, the Woman’s Club of Arlington, Preston Caruthers, Rich Doud, L. Karen Darner
- 2010s: George Varoutsos, Mary Ann Nirschl, Meg Tuccillo, John Andelin, Ginger Geoffrey, Lola Reinsch, Mary Ann Moran, Jonathan Kinney, John Milliken, Emma Violand-Sánchez, Alfred Taylor
- 2020s: COVID front-line workers, Lucy Bowen, Florence Ross, Kay Nassetta, Portia Clark, Mark Riley, Dr. Michael Silverman, John Foti, Andres Tobar, Tsehaye Teferra, Jeanne Broyhill, Dr. Raymond Hoare, Martha (Marty) Swaim and, last year, Claudia Ramirez Cuellar, Nina Janopaul and Kellen MacBeth
The keynote speaker at the Nov. 12 luncheon was James Schwartz, who, as a senior member of the Arlington County Fire Department in 2001, was placed in charge of the 20-day public-safety response to the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.
In his remarks, Schwartz praised the work of then-county Fire Chief Edward Plaugher, who in the years leading up to the incident had pressed regional leaders to prepare for mass-casualty events.
Having watched incidents like previous attacks on the World Trade Center and the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, “Ed was taking note and prodding us,” Schwartz said.
“He really rallied the region’s fire and police chiefs,” who in turn got the attention of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Schwartz said.
“The federal government picked up that effort and spread it across the country,” said Schwartz, who succeeded Plaugher as fire chief and later served as a deputy county manager.
In their remarks, both Owens and Schwartz noted that a third of Americans weren’t alive during the 9/11 attacks, and many do not know the stories of those who lost their lives. He touted the planned education center to be built near the Pentagon, which will memorialize the 184 people who died in Arlington that day.
“That center is going to be incredibly important,” Schwartz said.
While no public-safety personnel died in the response to the 2001 attack, local agencies saw a number of early retirements related to response efforts. Since 9/11, seven Arlington public-safety personnel have died as a result of conditions directly connected to the response efforts.
“Their stories, too, need to be remembered,” Schwartz said.
