This article was originally published in The Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, March 19, 2010.

The legacy of the late Ivan Allen Jr. lives on. On his birthday, March 15, the Ivan Allen College  of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech held the 10th annual Founder’s Day luncheon when it awarded William J. Todd, the 2010 recipient of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service. Todd is president of the Georgia Cancer Coalition, and he has spent 38 years involved in health care and technology development in metro Atlanta. Todd, an alumnus of Georgia Tech (1971), also is immediate past chair of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.

This will be the last Prize for Progress and Service that the college will award because Georgia Tech is enhancing its identification with the late Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.

Starting in 2011, Georgia Tech will launch the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage. The new prize will recognize an individual who has demonstrated moral and ethical courage consistent with Mayor Allen’s values.

The international prize, which is being endowed with a $2 million gift from the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation, will include a $100,000 monetary stipend.

During the Founder’s Day lunch, Todd spent most of his talk describing the leadership that  Mayor Ivan Allen displayed during the 1960s, when he was a progressive voice in the South who supported integration.

Todd also responded to Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson’s challenge to imagine what the university could look like in 2035. Todd said he would want Georgia Tech to “create a leadership initiative” that would have a “profound and lasting impact on our nation.”