Aiken receives Bill J. Leonard Distinguished Service Award

June 5, 2014

Aiken

For his lifetime service to the community, Michael “Mike” Aiken received this year’s Bill J. Leonard Distinguished Service Award Pro Fide Et Humanitate from the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Aiken, who graduated from Wake Forest in 1971, has served as executive director of Greensboro Urban Ministry, a non-profit organization that serves the Greater Greensboro area, for more than 25 years. The agency offers food and emergency financial assistance, emergency and transitional shelter, and rapid rehousing.

The award, established by James M. Dunn, Resident Professor of Christianity and Public Policy, and his wife, Marilyn, honors the life contributions of Bill J. Leonard as teacher, scholar, historian, and first dean of the School of Divinity.

Awarded annually by the faculty, recipients are faculty, alumni, or friends of the school who embody the principle of Wake Forest’s motto of Pro Humanitate and the School’s mission to educate agents of justice, reconciliation, and compassion in Christian churches and other ministries.

“Mike’s ministry and commitments embody what we as a faculty hope all of our students will do and be when they graduate,” said Gail R. O’Day, dean of the School of Divinity. “Greensboro Urban Ministry is also one of our most important ministry partners in preparing our students for religious leadership.”

Aiken was presented the Bill J. Leonard Distinguished Service Award Pro Fide Et Humanitate at the School of Divinity’s Hooding Ceremony for the 2014 graduating class on Saturday evening, May 17 in Wait Chapel.