Dedicated advocate for Nevada County’s homeless people Tom Durkin has been selected as recipient of the 36th Annual Col. William H. “Bill” Lambert Award, which is presented each year as part of Nevada City’s Constitution Day Celebration.
The prestigious Lambert Award is given annually by the Famous Marching Presidents of Nevada City in recognition of outstanding contributions to the community. The award is named in honor of the late Col. William H. Lambert, founder of Nevada City’s annual Constitution Day Parade.
“The Famous Marching Presidents are truly honored to recognize Tom Durkin,” said Marching Presidents founder and former Nevada City mayor David Parker. “His many years of working in the community and with the County of Nevada are changing the landscape for the county’s homeless.”
Parker will present the award on Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Marching Presidents banquet following the 59th Annual Constitution Day Parade. Durkin and Uncle Sam will lead the Presidents down Broad Street in the annual procession. The parade begins at 2pm.
Durkin is a native New Yorker who grew up in Kansas and graduated from UCLA. He worked for 10 years in the film industry before moving to Northern California and pursuing a career as a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist. He continues to write a regular column for The Union and was named as the newspaper’s Citizen of The Year in 2024.
He experienced homelessness first hand after life changing events forced him to live out of his car. He began volunteering for Hospitality House in 2010, worked with Sierra Roots, and in 2021 founded the local No Place To Go Project, which he continues to serve as executive director. Today he resides in a trailer on a friend’s property in rural Nevada City.
“I’m very honored and touched,” he said upon learning he had been selected for the Lambert Award. “I’m just trying to help people and be out there speaking for people who can’t speak for themselves.”
The Marching Presidents is a fun-loving and educational group that portrays all 47 U.S. Presidents with reverence, good humor and varying degrees of historical accuracy. For reliable information on U.S. Presidents, see www.americanpresident.org.
Past Lambert Recipients
Past Lambert Award recipients are the late city manager Beryl P. Robinson Jr., former mayor and city clerk Cathy Wilcox-Barnes, longtime parade organizers George and Pat Harper, former mayor Pat Dyer, the late real estate broker Jim Mackey, local writer Dave Carter, former Chamber of Commerce executive manager Cathy Whittlesey, former mayor Steve Cottrell, businessman Bob Buhlis, retired Nevada County general services director Dennis Cassella, John Christensen, a leader of community efforts to establish the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum; cartoonist R.L. “Crabman” Crabb, business owners Lee and Susan Thurston, retired Nevada City public works director Verne Taylor, the late historian Edwin Tyson, the late folksinger/activist U Utah Phillips, former city engineer Bill Falconi, Marching Presidents organizer Patti Foster, retired school administrator Karen Chizek, the late musician Mikail Graham, the late county librarian Madelyn Helling, local builder Gary Tintle, former mayors Paul Matson and Reinette Senum, Nevada City Film Festival Director Jesse Locks, Nevada City musician and producer Paul Emery, homeless advocates Joanna Robinson and Cindy Maple, former Grass Valley mayor Howard Levine, real estate broker Charlie Brock, local attorney Fran Cole, real estate broker Jon Blinder, preforming arts leader John Deaderick, river scientist Joanne Hild and civic leaders Ken and Kay Baker. Marching Presidents founder David Parker was honored with the group’s 20th anniversary award.