Francis Heisler Award Winners

We honor a chapter board member who has done outstanding work in the area of civil liberties with the Francis Heisler Award. It is named for acclaimed civil rights lawyer Francis Heisler. The award is given only when warranted, not each year like the Ralph B.Atkinson Award, which is for non-board members. Because Heisler was a Monterey County Chapter of the ACLU board member, and champion of civil liberties, this award was named after him.

Born in Hungary, Francis Heisler arrived in the United States in 1924. He was trained first as an electrical engineer and enrolled as a law student when he arrived in America. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1930. He did most of his work with labor unions, union disputes, and conscientious objectors. He moved to Carmel in 1948. For more than 50 years, Mr. Heisler dedicated himself to the preservation of civil liberties in America. He defended the weak and the powerless, those prosecuted or punished for exercising their civil rights, and those who sought the protection of the law for exercising First Amendment rights. He did so regardless of the content of the message of the speakers, believing that unpopular speech and unpopular speakers were entitled to the full protection of the law. Mr. Heisler represented the highest ideals of the law and of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Monterey County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also helped to establish, upon the death of Mr. Heisler in 1984, the Francis Heisler Moot Court Competition - with the Monterey College of Law and the friends and family of Mr. Heisler - as a living tribute to one of the 20th Century's legal giants.

2009 - The Reverend Alice Ann Glenn

The Rev. Alice Ann Glenn is a United Methodist Clergy who spent the first part of her ministry as a Christian Education Director in local churches. The next phase of her ministry was writing curriculum, "how to," and seasonal articles for her denomination.

In 1987 when Alice Ann and her husband returned to Monterey, she spent ten years working with the Monterey County Aids Project. During this time she started writing and speaking more on issues of equality, health care, justice, and civil rights.

The last twenty plus years most of Alice Ann’s work has been for the denomination, not a specific local church. She has been an elected as a delegate to regional, national, and international Conferences of the United Methodist Church where she has constantly worked for full inclusion and ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons. Alice Ann has worked locally marriage equality and equal rights for all.

Alice Ann also has a passion for equal education for all, exemplified by tutoring in East Salinas.