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Len Perfetti was a criminal justice major and also a varsity football player for the Blue Hens who began his college career in 1974. In 1977 he was diagnosed with an inoperable cancer of the lymphatic system. After extensive chemotherapy, he returned to the university in the spring of 1978, despite the fact that his condition was steadily worsening. That semester he earned a 3.77 and continued to volunteer a great deal of time working with juvenile offenders. In the summer of 1978 he was repeatedly hospitalized and underwent chemotherapy sessions at Sloan-Kettering in New York. In the fall he still enrolled for the last 12 credits that he needed to complete his B.A. in Criminal Justice, making arrangements with his professors to complete his required course work from his hospital bed. When he died at the age of 22 in November 1978, he had completed all of his course work required for his degree. Faculty members were so impressed by Len’s courage, tenacity, commitment to volunteerism, and his relentless pursuit of excellence that they created the Len Perfetti Award in his honor. The recipient of this award, a senior Criminal Justice major, is selected on the basis of scholarship, service, and character.