The Community Foundation

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee will honor Francis Guess as recipient of the 20th Annual Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award.

No one who knows him can imagine what Nashville would have been like without Francis S. Guess. The child raised in public housing became the man whose fingerprints can be found on almost every major civic effort in our community.

The child raised in the segregated south now champions equal access for minority business people to civic project contracts.

The child who grew up to fight for his country wading — up to his neck — through the rice paddies of Vietnam became a philanthropist, as well as a public servant, businessman, civic leader and humanitarian.

While he isn’t always out-front leading the charge, Francis S. Guess has put his stamp on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (to which President Reagan appointed him), both Tennessee’s Department of Labor and its Department of General Services (to which Governor Alexander appointed him Commissioner), and a host of nonprofits including the NAACP, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, the American Institute for Managing Diversity, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African American Music, Nashville Minority Business Development Loan Fund, the Tennessee Human Rights Commission.

The Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award was created to perpetuate the memory of a remarkable person who led our community by strength of character and unwavering integrity. The award is given annually to individuals who, like Joe, have made life better for others through hard work, bold dedication to service and strong faith in the human spirit.