INDIANAPOLIS (September 22, 2015) – Today the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee (GIPC) and Mayor Greg Ballard announce that Tom King will receive the Charles L. Whistler Award.

The annual award recognizes individuals who, outside the regular duties of their chosen professions, have brought together the public and private sectors for civic improvement in Indianapolis.

“Tom King’s efforts to advance Indianapolis put him in a class by himself,” said Murray Clark, GIPC board chair and managing partner of Faegre Baker Daniels. “Because of his great work and dedication, Indianapolis is a stronger, more compassionate city. He is deserving of this honor for his decades of selfless service to his community.”

“Tom King has played an important role in making Indianapolis the place it is today,” said Mayor Ballard. “His leadership skills and civic-minded approach have benefited organizations and strengthened the public-private partnership model that makes Indianapolis a great city.”

Currently, King is the president and CEO of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation (ISMHS). Prior to joining ISMHS in February 2010, he was president of Thomas A. King Consulting, a company he formed in April 2005 after retiring from Eli Lilly and Company.

King serves on a number of community boards and recently completed stints as chair of the board of the Indiana Sports Corporation, Goodwill Foundation of Central Indiana, Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana and the Benjamin Harrison Home Foundation. He currently serves as chair of the board of the Center for Leadership Development and as president of the Arthur Jordan Foundation.

The Whistler Award event will be held Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at 7:30am at Ivy Tech Culinary Center. To purchase tickets, visit www.indygipc.org.

About the Whistler Award
The Charles L. Whistler Award continues to honor the legacy of Whistler, a lawyer and community leader in the grand tradition, who gave his time and extraordinary abilities to the Indianapolis community without asking for power or position in return. At the time of his death in 1981, he was a senior partner at Faegre Baker Daniels and chair of both the GIPC’s Urban Growth and Revitalization Task Force and the White River State Park Citizen’s Advisory Committee.

King’s name will be added to a limestone and granite monument containing past award recipients’ names and located in the Charles L. Whistler Memorial Plaza at the City Market in downtown Indianapolis.

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Past Whistler Award Recipients:
1983: Thomas H. Lake
1984: Thomas W. Binford & David R. Frick
1985: Frank P. Lloyd
1986: Phillip R. Duke & Thomas W. Moses
1987: Mattie M. Coney
1988: Donald W. Tanselle
1989: Ramon L. Humke & Henry C. Ryder
1990: Richard O. Morris
1991: Eldon Campbell
1992: Michael A. Carroll
1993: William W. Mays & James T. Morris
1994: Fred C. Tucker, Jr.
1995: Robert H. Reynolds
1996: Thomas M. Miller & Sam H. Jones
1997: Dr. Gene Sease
1998: Jack Shaw & Dan & Lori Efroymson
1999: Andrew Paine & Yvonne Shaheen
2000: Rev. T. Garrott Benjamin & Michael Maurer
2001: Jerry Semler & Fay Williams
2003: Alex Carroll & Rev. Charles Williams
2004: Dr. Beurt Servaas & Gerald Bepko
2005: Joseph D. Barnette, Jr. & G. Frederick Glass
2007: P.E. MacAllister & Marge Tarplee
2008: Patrick J. Early
2009: John T. Neighbours & Sallie W. Rowland
2010: Michael G. Browning
2011: Samuel L. Odle
2012: David Shane
2013: John M. Mutz
2014: Martha Lamkin

More about Charles L. Whistler:
As an Indianapolis Star editorial noted shortly after his death in 1981, “Charles L. Whistler was a visionary, talented and energetic prime mover who had a leading role in shaping the Indianapolis of today and its modern political structure. He loved the capital city and the Hoosier state, town and county, urban scenes with beauty and character, and the great outdoors. He had the persuasive ability often associated with the authors of constitutions, and used it to win strong support and positive contributions from others, often representing diverse interests, for the array of projects and programs that he helped conceive and bring to fruition. He wrote much of the legislation consolidating city and county governments under UniGov. He also had a leading role in the modernization and beautification of downtown Indianapolis and the creation of the City Center on Monument Circle, the adaptive reuse of the Indiana Theater, the downtown retailing mall concept, and the planning of the White River State Park.”