Photo submitted to Times Observer David Marquis, a leader of multiple restorations of Struthers Library Theatre, receives a Peacock Award for significant contributions to the theater from Board of Trustees President Susan Stout. Marquis is the 12th winner of the award in the theater’s 140-year history.

The Struthers Library Theatre has a new awardee of its highest honor.

The Board of Trustees unanimously awarded David Marquis with a Peacock Award, presented to those who have made significant contributions to the theater. The surprise award was made at the conclusion of a recent technical tour of the 140-year-old facility. Marquis is the 12th Peacock Award recipient in the history of the theater.

“As part of the ongoing celebration of the 140-year anniversary of the Struthers Library Theatre, three leaders of the 1983 restoration of the Theatre met recently for a technical tour,” said Susan Stout, Struthers Library Theatre board president. “David and Pat Marquis and Chase and Mary Putnam were central to that Centennial Restoration, and this was a reunion of sorts for Dave, Chase, and Mary.”

Stout said the theatre was in poor shape by 1990 after decades of limited and decreasing use, eventually being used only as a movie theater. The Marquis and Putnam families led an effort that mushroomed into more than 300 volunteers who gave at least 10,000 hours of time for fundraisers and work on the theater. The group raised more than $350,000, an amount Stout said equals $1,066,035 in today’s dollars.

She said those who remember the Centennial Restoration remember it with a smile, but they recall cramped and aching muscles.

“There was such great camaraderie, a real sense of doing something great for the community together,” one veteran of the project recalled.

The recent technical tour highlighted the ways that ensuing generations have honored the vision of the centennial planners, Stout said. Marcy O’Brien, former executive director and herself a Peacock award recipient, highlighted the addition of the elevator, with its view of Warren and the nearby hills. Barb Crowley, another Peacock Awardee and the Theatre’s lighting director, showed the continuity with the projection booth added by the 1980s volunteers and the ongoing modernization of equipment. Karen Austin, current executive director, led the tour group through the recently completed renovations of the Sisson Rehearsal Hall where Theatre Historian Ellen Paquette, also a Peacock awardee, had dug through the layers of paint there to ensure that the paint colors chosen for the rehabilitation were historically accurate. The theater has also had more than 4,000 pounds of new sound-dampening panels installed so the rehearsal hall is better equipped for tryouts and practices for theater programs.

“With the enthusiastic and unanimous support of the Board of Trustees, we offer this Peacock Award to honor David A. Marquis for the leadership, vision, and hard work he has dedicated to our beloved theatre,” Stout said.