The Chicago Leather Kennel Club

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."
Robert Collier

The Thom Dombkowski Heart of a Leatherman Award

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Thom Dombkowski (1950-2006) was a founding member of the Chicago Leather Kennel Club. Thom was a fixture on the leather scene for many years, and had been involved with IML in unofficial and official capacities since 1980. This included coaching IML1984 Ron Moore and IML1987 Thomas Karasch. He held the roles of IML's charity liaison, press liaison, speech writer, tallymaster, and judges' coordinator. Most famously, Thom served a 10-year term as IML's Chief Judge between 1992-2001.

After his retirement as IML Chief Judge, Thom used his experience and talents to mentor individual titleholders. As a result, he's enjoyed the expansion of his chosen leather family. It included an eclectic group of Chicagoans, four Canadian sons and the two younger Brothers that Thom always wanted when he was growing up in Rochester, New York. It was Thom's vision that was the impetus for the creation of the Chicago Leather Kennel Club, and it is because of him that we exist.

Upon his passing in 2006, The Chicago Leather Kennel Club established the Thom Dombkowski Heart of a Leatherman Award as a remembrance of the man who played a role in shaping some of the most influential leathermen of our times, while at the same time remained behind the scenes and sought no public glory. This award will be given annually as part of the Mr. Chicago Leather Weekend honoring an individual who exemplifies the things in our community that mattered most to Thom.

Chuck Windemuth

2007 Thom Dombkowski Heart of a Leatherman Award Recipient

Presented to Chuck Windemuth as someone who lives the life of a leatherman through thought, action, word and deed, and who always gives to his community, expecting no personal return.

Pictured is Dean Ogren presenting the award to Chuck Windemuth.

John Pendal

2008 Thom Dombkowski Heart of a Leatherman Award Recipient

The recipient of the 2008 Thom Dombkowski heart of a Leatherman Award is someone that isn't directly a part of the local Chicago community, but has definitely had an impact here. Many of us met him for the first time in May 2003, when he came across the pond and won the 25th Annual International Mister Leather competition here.

While a lot of us didn't get to know him that particular weekend, we did learn more about him as he traveled extensively and blogged about it on his website. He gave away his Harley. He's educated us about the work of the Spanner Trust and served as their Chair. Locally, we've seen him every year as our emcee for the Mr. Chicago Leather Contest.

We proudly honor John Pendal as a man who lives the life of a leatherman, through thought, action, word and deed, expecting no personal return. John is shown at left with the red crystal heart and plaque that he recieved.

Upon receiving the Award, John asked the indulgence and permission of the assembled audience and the CLKC to pass the red crystal heart to Deborah Hyde of the UK based organization Backlash. John cited Deborah as someone who truly exemplifies the heart of a leatherman, who recieves little recognition for her work leading the fight against a proposed ban on "extreme pornography" in the United Kingdom and as such John would like to share this honor with Deborah in recognition of her work.