Kinnard wins lifetime achievement award

Rupert Kinnard ’79 won the 2013 “Standing on the Shoulders” Lifetime Achievement award from the World Arts Foundation.

Kinnard was honored for his work as a graphic designer and cartoonist, as well as his advocacy for LGBT causes. The award, presented on Martin Luther King Day, notes: “Your artistic talent and leadership to reach out to the LGBT community honors the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

In 1977 Kinnard created a comic strip called “Cathartic Comics” at Cornell, and continued to publish the strip, which featured characters The Brown Bomber and Diva Touche Flambe, in Just Out magazine after he graduated.

The award was presented at the 28th annual tribute to King by the foundation. The award “recognizes individuals and organizations for exemplary community service. This distinguished group has been selected for having gone the extra mile to give the greater Portland metropolitan community a higher quality of life in the spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”