W. GREGORY WIMS (Awards)
President, Victims’ Rights Foundation

Gregory Wims is a local businessman and community activist who founded the Victims' Rights Foundation (VRF) in response to the senseless killings of three Washington D.C. area women in 1996. Moved by the grace of God, Gregory is dedicated in supporting victims and their families of violent crimes and attacks. He was instrumental in forming and supporting the Sniper Victims’ Fund in response to the sniper attacks in the Washington D.C. metro area in 2002.

In the grand scheme, however, he is really a man with a long volunteer career and a burning desire to bring comfort and aid to those in need. In the last 35 years, he has raised more than $1 million dollars, logged more than 500,000 miles, and volunteered more than 28,000 hours on community service projects.

He began his volunteer career in 1969, when he was elected vice president of the State of Maryland Youth Commission. The next year, as president of that organization, he played a pivotal role in lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. In the 1970’s, he served as the youngest person ever appointed by the County Executive as Commissioner of the Montgomery County Maryland Human Relations Commission. In this role, he worked with community officials to hire the first African American to the police department.

From 1974 to 1976, he was the first male Head Start teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland. In the 1980s, he led the Social Concern Committee at Goshen United Methodist Church and set up a prison ministry program. He also founded United Brothers, Inc., organized the first “gun turn-in” program in Montgomery County, and chaired the “Get Out to Vote” campaign.

In the early 1990s, Gregory Wims served as the membership chairman for the NAACP, recruiting more than 1,000 new members. In 1994, he was elected president of the Montgomery County Chapter of the NAACP, and one-year later; he was voted President of the NAACP’s Maryland State Chapter. In this role, he led more peaceful demonstrations than any previous president and organized with Janice Washington the first federal employment task force for the National NAACP. During this, he was also appointed by President George Bush as a Board Member of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

Mr. Wims currently serves on the following boards, University of Maryland Dental School, Family Services Agency of Montgomery County, MD, Children's Charities Foundation of Washington DC, Montgomery County Maryland Chamber of Commerce, Montgomery College Foundation Board, Hospice Caring Board and Boys and Girls Club and Friends of the Library. Mr. Wims is a member of the Bethesda Chevy Chase, MD. Rotary.