Overview: Merry Leonard has served as a MUD Director since the mid 70s. Merry was elected to the AWBD Board of Trustees in the early 80s and served in various offices, including President. In 1993, she was hired as the AWBD’s first full-time employee and was later named Executive Director. Although, she retired from AWBD in 2020, she continues to serve on a MUD. Merry believed and still believes in the value of service and the power of districts and their directors to make positive, enduring impacts on their communities. The Leonard Legacy Award honors Merry and all the water district directors who champion districts’ efforts that make their parts of the world better.
Nominations:
Criteria: To be eligible for the Leonard Legacy Award, the nominee must:
The 2024 Leonard Legacy Award Recipient
2023
Diane K. Flynn
Post Wood MUD
Timeline:
History: began in 1992 with the Award going to:
Joe B. Allen, Jim Box, Bill Callegari, Bill Corsbie, Myrtle Cruz, Gary Nathanson, and Julien Reeves.
The Visions Award has been given to many individuals in the industry over the past 29 years. The award is given to those who have made significant contributions to the AWBD, to its members directly, and toward improving the entire water/wastewater industry. There have been years when the award was not given out and most years where one or more people have received the award.
The Board of Directors of the AWBD has always taken suggestions from the Executive Director, AWBD Board Members, and consultants to the AWBD. The Board President/Executive Director have collected the suggestions and presented them to the BOD at a meeting for discussion. The board then votes on a candidate(s) and the award is presented at the Annual AWBD Conference in the summer. The award is usually a surprise to the recipient, however, every effort is made to ensure that person will be there for the presentation at the conference.
The criteria for this award as follows:
The 2025 Visions Award Recipient
The purpose of this biennial program is to encourage our membership to share information about the wonderful projects that the districts are accomplishing that will improve and enhance the lives of our constituents. These projects must have been completed within the past three years from the date of the application.
The recipients will be judged by category within one of the five award divisions based on the response to the questions under the Summary Review. Applications will be judged by a panel of professionals with experience in the field and the winners will be announced at our Midwinter Conference.
© 2025 Association of Water Board Directors - Texas