Previous winners have been top administrators or faculty members. It's exciting that the award this year honors a custodian, an important job that often goes overlooked in the university's enamorment with titles and degrees. Last year's award went to the head of food service, another unsung but important campus chore.

The cash award, more than Mrs. Dover's annual salary, was endowed by the late Edith Kinney Gaylord in honor of Mr. Sullivant, the dean of the Daily Oklahoma's Capitol press corps and a native of Norman.

OU President David L. Boren said Mr. Sullivant's "Observer" column was the first thing read in his family's home on Sunday morning.

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Juanita Salyer is looking to recognize another community custodian. She lives on Highland Parkway and reports a neighbor breezes through the neighborhood each day picking up trash.

He keeps Highland Parkway clean just west of Flood Avenue.

It reminds me of some other Norman residents who have taken it upon themselves to keep small pieces of ground clean. One man, now deceased, made Rotary Park on Boyd Street his cause. Another one mowed an old cemetery whose graves were overgrown with weeds and bushes.

Some campus walkers routinely keep stretches of sidewalk clean. Think what a clean community we would have if everyone picked up just a little. Or better yet, if littering became socially intolerable.

Andy Rieger 366-3543 editor@normantranscript.com