# Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee of the Year

Outstanding Handicapped Federal Employee of the Year was an annual award given by the United States Civil Service Commission beginning in 1969, to recognize exceptional job performance "in spite of severely limiting physical factors." For the first few years, ten finalists were selected by a committee, from among the nominations from federal agencies, and one winner was named. Beginning in 1973, the ten finalists were honored without a single winner chosen.
Prominent finalists for this award included chemist Odette L. Shotwell, Army engineer Alice Chancellor, and John Fales, founder and president of the Blinded American Veterans Foundation. A 1986 recipient, LeRoy MItchell, explained to a reporter that "If there's any benefit to these awards after all, besides an ego trip for me, it would be that potential employers would realize that most office-type work is the kind of vocation anyone can handle with severe handicaps." Others expressed concern that "the use of an individual's physical condition as a basis for reward fosters separateness and inequality."

## Award nominees, winners, and presenters, 1968 to 1973

This chart is complete, based on program from the 1973 awards presentation in 1974.
| Award year | Ceremony date | Presenter(s) | Finalists | Winner |
| 1968 | March 25, 1969 | Spiro Agnew Robert E. Hampton | Katherine A. Niemeyer Thomas J. Garrick William S. Grayson James A. Krueger Lawrence P. Kuykendall Neal V. Loving Odette L. Shotwell Paul F. Spence Aubrey T. Tapley Elwood Williams III | Katherine A. Niemeyer |
| 1969 | March 19, 1970 | James E. Johnson Harold Russell | Robert L. Smith Jimmy D. Adams Thomas S. Austin Sr. Jay Justin Basch Mrs. Francis B. Garcia Ralph Harwood Dorothy Hickey Earl A. Miller Philip P. Pepper Magdalene Phillips | Robert L. Smith |
| 1970 | March 25, 1971 | Pat Nixon J. Philip Bohart | Alice Chancellor William J. Gobert Susan Gonzales Pruett B. Helm Kent H. McKnight Eugene F. Murphy Richard S. Sharp Timothy A. Votaw Leon G. Wichmann Robert E. Wilkerson | Alice Chancellor |
| 1971 | April 6, 1972 | Tricia Nixon Cox Jayne Baker Spain | Shirley K. Price Wallace E. Brooks Donald F. Cudahy Martha F. Elam Thomas F. Linde Edward A. Lusk John B. McGinley Bernard A. Perella Patricia Porembski Jack G. Lorts | Shirley K. Price |
| 1972 | April 5, 1973 | Julie Nixon Eisenhower | Irvin Hershowitz Arthur R. Bietry Lillian F. Freston James J. Hazuga Sr. Edmund H. Inselmann Paul L. Kyle Assunta Lilley Jack O. McSpadden Arthur H. Neill Jr. Gwenyth R. Vaughn | Irvin Hershowitz |
| 1973 | April 4, 1974 | Bob Dole Jayne Baker Spain | Robert L. Bates Edwin C. Boyles William L. Brewster Frank G. Chituras Icy D. Deans Howard J. Garling Cheryl Lee Maloney Oral O. Miller John R. Stodgell Russell C. Williams | (no individual winners after 1972) |

## Award finalists and presenters after 1973

This chart is currently incomplete, based mostly on announcements about individual finalists.
| Award year | Ceremony date | Presenter(s) | Finalists |
| 1974 | March 1975 | | Howard Davis Billy West |
| 1975 | | | Edward V. Pope |
| 1977 | October 6, 1977 | Rosalynn Carter | Sharon Hovey Wilkin Robert Adams Dennis Meyers Christopher Branigan Donna Pastore |
| 1978 | | | Earl Brawner |
| 1979 | October 4, 1979 | Eleanor Holmes Norton Alan K. "Scotty" Campbell | G. Robert Hill Donald R. Ames Paul E. Bricker Jr. Hilliard A. Carter Carol A. Edwards John J. Lacombe II Theodore A. Nichols Emily S. Ortt A. Leigh Phillips James R. Slagle |
| 1980 | | Jimmy Carter | John L. Moser Douglas Gower Edward Sanders |
| 1981 | | | William Gilliland Jr. Robert A. Bottenberg |
| 1982 | October 1982 | Caspar Weinberger | Humberto R. Yglesias Eva Ball |
| 1983 | | | Theodore Bridis |
| 1986 | October 9, 1986 | | LeRoy Mitchell Martha Wells Usry |
| 1988 | | | Sandra Drake |