Nominees Named for 1998 Fernando Award

Thirteen business leaders and volunteers comprise this year’s field of nominees for the Fernando Award honoring public service in the San Fernando Valley.

Organizers of the annual award will announce five finalists Aug. 27 and name the recipient of the award Nov. 6, said Fausto Capobianco, a spokesman for the Fernando Award Foundation.

Since 1958, the Fernando Award has been given annually to recognize an individual for a lifetime of community service in the Valley.

Among the 1998 nominees are Walter N. Prince, president of a Northridge building maintenance company; Rickey Gelb, a Van Nuys developer; Ronald Ben Clary, a Canoga Park lawyer; Herman Berman, founder of a Van Nuys trophy and award design company, and Walter W. Mosher Jr., founder and president of a San Fernando firm that makes medical devices.

Also nominated are Irwin Silon of Arleta, a retired graphic artist; actress Beverly Garland, a North Hollywood hotel owner; Robert D. Voit, a Woodland Hills developer; Horace H. Heidt, a Sherman Oaks musician and apartment complex owner, and Farideh Kioumehr, founder and president of the International Health and Epidemiology Research Center in Sherman Oaks.

Other nominees are Bob Scott, a Woodland Hills attorney; Ruth Richter, who runs a motorcycle sales business in Winnetka, and Priscilla Ann Brehm, a Calabasas financial consultant.

Capobianco said the Fernando Award was inspired by traditions of community service that date back to the Valley’s earliest settlers--Native Americans.

Shaped much like an Oscar, the award is a statuette of a young Native American. Various Valley chambers of commerce and past recipients nominate candidates and vote.