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Howard "Bud" Herron will be honored alongside Rev. Dr. Felipe Martinez as the two gentlemen receive the 2024 William R. Laws Human Rights Award, presented by the Columbus Human Rights Commission, during its Annual Dinner Meeting at The Commons, located at 300 Washington St. in downtown Columbus, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday evening. 

When Herron was notified that he would be receiving the award he was totally shocked and found himself in a bit of denial about why he would be awarded the honor, he says.

“I’m very pleased,” he says. “A lot of folks who’ve done some great things are on the list of winners who go back for several decades, and I’m just flattered beyond belief.”

As he is recognized mainly for his work with Advocates for Children, Herron says he will accept the award in gratitude for all those who he’s worked with over the years who’ve likewise worked tirelessly to make a difference, he says.

“Starting with my folks,” he says. “And the newspaper people I worked with for 40 years who didn’t believe in things like alternate facts, those who actually sought the truth and never got paid enough, and who served the community in a lot of better ways than we have today.”

And, of course, for his late wife, Ann, who he says taught him lessons in commitment and the importance of always going after and doing the right thing.

“She was a person who lived her love,” Herron says.  

Herron, who has been instrumental with the development of HSJ Online, as well as helping to establish the HCFR Area Endowment, adds he appreciates and has immense gratitude for Advocates for Children – an organization with which he’s worked following his retirement from the journalism business in 2007.

 He says there’s no finer group to be found anywhere.

“They never give up on a child, they never quit looking for a rainbow – even when it seems impossible to find,” Herron says. “They are just wonderful people. I worked with scores of children during those years and the kids were remarkable, they were brave, they were resilient – they were all wonderful people. The things those children went through, they deserve the award.”

Established in the 1980s as the Human Rights Award and later becoming the William R. Laws Human Rights Award in 1986, the honor has been shared by many outstanding Columbus residents, including J. Irwin Miller – the first recipient in 1985, former Mayor Fred Armstrong, and HSJ Online contributor Larry Perkinson.

Tickets for the event are $30 each and may be purchased at the Human Rights Commission office, as well as online HERE.