Marjorie Murray Bridgman Award

The recipient of the 35th Marjorie Murray Bridgman Award is William F. Gibbons Jr. for his significant contributions to the preservation of local history.  

Over the past 35 years, Bill Gibbons has been instrumental (in both a volunteer and a professional capacity) in the preservation of numerous historic properties throughout Anne Arundel County, many of which received ACT Orlando Ridout IV Prizes. As Project Director of Arundel Community Development Services, Inc. (ACDS) for more than two decades and a board member of the West River Improvement Association, his leadership efforts in community development and historic preservation in the County are exemplary. One notable project includes his work on the study and rehabilitation of the West Benning Road Historic District in Galesville. With his help, the Galesville community was able to obtain and leverage grant money to fully restore the Galesville Rosenwald School, an important historic structure built for the education of African-Americans in the early 20th century and now used as a Community Center.  Currently, his recent efforts to oversee the restoration of the Wilson House in Galesville, a historically significant farmstead constructed by a freed slave in ca. 1865, has been a gift of time, labor, and love. His oversight has been invaluable and is a major reason that the Wilson House is still standing and now receiving the attention and care that it deserves.