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Dave Lieberth named 52nd Polsky Award recipient

Published: July 3, 2019

AKRON––A civic activist who has volunteered thousands of hours and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Akron civic, cultural, and charitable organizations is the 2019 recipient of Akron Community Foundation’s Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award. David Lieberth will receive the award at the annual Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award dinner on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn.

Lieberth, who wrote and produced the Polsky awards program for nearly three decades, will be the 52nd recipient of the award, which Akron Community Foundation presents each year to an individual or couple who has shown selfless dedication to humanitarian causes in Akron.

Over a vast and varied career as a broadcast journalist, lawyer and civic leader, Lieberth has become one of the most recognized individuals in Summit County. In addition to his prominent professional career, including his stint as Deputy Mayor of Akron, Lieberth has made a name for himself for his dedication to community service, particularly as a veritable walking history book for the community.

A longtime member and former chair of the Summit County Historical Society, Lieberth has been part of several monumental projects to preserve the community’s history, including the development of an endowment for the society, writing three recent books of Akron history, and producing two television documentaries for Western Reserve Public Media.

As a new lawyer in 1978, he was instrumental in spurring the Supreme Court decision to open Ohio courtrooms to television. He was selected by the White House to moderate President Bill Clinton’s first Town Meeting on Race at E.J. Thomas Hall that was aired live nationally in 1997 on C-SPAN.

He led several initiatives in the 1980’s to advance child advocacy in Summit County and served on the boards of Children’s Services, the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, and for twenty years has been part of the board of Summa Health, currently chairing its Community Engagement Committee.

He chaired volunteer groups that won Akron’s designation as an “All-America City” by the National Civic League in 1995 and 2008. He was the first president of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron.

In 1984, Lieberth became the youngest board member of Akron Community Foundation, and in recent years has served on the boards of Downtown Akron Partnership and the Akron Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau. He coordinated the first bikeathon sponsored by LeBron James, and has been part of James’ philanthropy since 2005, serving as a charter member of the advisory board of the LeBron James Family Foundation.

He has received awards for his professional accomplishments and commitment to the community, including the Sir Thomas More Award from the Akron Bar Association; the H. Peter Burg Award from the American Red Cross Summit County Chapter; the John S. Knight award from the Society of Professional Journalists; and the Community Medal Award from the Salvation Army.

One of the founders of Leadership Akron, he has participated in every one of the 36 signature classes. In 2012, following his retirement, Leadership Akron created The Lieberth Community Vision Award, which is given annually to a local leader who models his pragmatic and visionary commitment to the community.

Lieberth was selected to receive the Polsky Humanitarian Award by a committee of past honorees. Recent recipients include Stark & Knoll co-founding attorney Thomas G. Knoll; the Honorable Carla Moore; Oak Associates Ltd. founder Jim Oelschlager and his wife, Vanita; and GOJO Industries Chairman and CEO Joe Kanfer.

About the Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award

The Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award is named for the former president of Polsky’s Department Store and founding trustee of Akron Community Foundation. The community foundation presents the award each year to the individual or couple who best exemplifies Bert Polsky’s selfless dedication to humanitarian causes in Akron. The community foundation is currently seeking sponsors for the Oct. 15 award event. Opportunities start at $2,500 and go up to a $25,000 Event Sponsor. For more information about sponsorship availability and benefits, call Margaret Medzie, vice president and chief development officer, at 330-436-5610. Or, to receive an invitation to the event, call 330-376-8522.

About Akron Community Foundation

Celebrating 64 years of building community philanthropy, Akron Community Foundation embraces and enhances the work of charitable people who make a permanent commitment to the good of the community. In 1955, a $1 million bequest from the estate of Edwin Shaw established the community foundation. As of March 31, 2019, it is a philanthropic endowment of more than $220 million with a growing family of more than 640 funds established by charitable people and organizations from all walks of life. The community foundation and its funds welcome gifts of all kinds, including cash, bequests, stock, real estate, life insurance and retirement assets, just to name a few. To date, the community foundation’s funds have awarded more than $163 million in grants to qualified nonprofit organizations. For more information about Akron Community Foundation or to learn more about creating your own charitable fund, call 330-376-8522 or visit www.akroncf.org.


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