214@100: Prestigious award named for Howard Lester

Howard J. Lester spent a lifetime dedicated to youth, working more than four decades in education and pioneering programs throughout District 214.

The Buffalo Grove High School gymnasium was named in his honor - and, following his death in 1981, so was a prestigious athletics award that lives on today.

The Howard Lester Senior Memorial Award was established as a perpetual testimonial of Lester's legacy, honoring District 214's outstanding senior male and female athletes every year.

The award criteria, established by District 214 athletic directors shortly after his death, includes participation in sports, athletic achievements, character, academics and the core attributes of an athlete - including heart, effort and dedication.

"Howard was a very special person to this district," the late E.E. "Bus" Ormsbee, former athletic director at Wheeling High School, told the Daily Herald in 1983. "The student-athlete concept was so important to him. We wanted to work in some annual awards for our district athletes in his memory."

This year's awards went to John Hersey High School's Anne Korff, a three-sport athlete and recipient of 10 varsity letters, and Prospect High School's James Ford, a three-year starter on the varsity football team and a two-time regional champion and state qualifier in wrestling.

They were honored, as winners are every year, by the Board of Education.