Nominations, please

What Marylander had the biggest impact on the state in 2016? The Sun is asking for your nominations for the 2016 Marylander of the Year. Please send them to [e-mail] and include “Marylander of the Year” in the subject line. We'll announce the finalists in mid-December and a winner before the end of the year. As inspiration, here's the roster of The Sun's previous honorees.

1987: Steven Muller The Johns Hopkins president won The Sun's inaugural award for his “relentless drive, intelligence, vision, institutional ambition, smooth tongue and grasp of the possible.”

1988: Vincent DeMarco Now well known as one of Annapolis' most effective public interest lobbyists, Mr. DeMarco was in 1988 the essential element in the coalition that won support for landmark restrictions on Saturday Night Specials.

1989: Anne Tyler The novelest won the award in the same year that “Breathing Lessons” won the Pulitzer Prize and that “The Accidental Tourist” became a hit movie.

1990: Robert Linowes Montgomery County attorney Robert Linowes won for the work of a commission he chaired that sought to create a fairer, more equitable state tax system.

1991: Cal Ripken Jr. The Sun honored Cal Ripken after a season in which he was the All-Star game MVP, American League MVP and Sporting News and AP Player of the Year.

1992: Bea Gaddy The Sun said Baltimore's self-designated advocate and helper for the poor, Bea Gaddy, “Others preach the Golden Rule; Bea Gaddy lives it.”

1993: James W. Rouse The Sun recognized developer James W. Rouse for the work of his Enterprise Foundation. “He makes people believe. He lends his credibility and contacts and ideas. For lack of a better label, he is called a visionary.”

1994: Cardinal William Keeler The Sun named William H. Keeler Marylander of the Year when he was elevated to cardinal, a position that reaffirmed Baltimore's importance as the seat of American Catholicism.

1995: Kweisi Mfume The Sun honored Kweisi Mfume when he took over leadership of the NAACP. “His whole life seems to have been mapped out for this day.”

1996: Cast and crew of “Homicide” The Sun said “Homicide” was so true that “a real fleeing shoplifter ran onto a film location and surrendered to actors, while production executives seeking a site for a crack house stumbled into a real crack house.”

1997: Nancy Grasmick, Del. Howard “Pete” Rawlings and Walter Sondheim The Sun recognized the three people who made possible a landmark agreement to provide higher funding for Baltimore schools in exchange for increased state oversight.

1998: Peter G. Angelos The Sun said the attorney could easily be Marylander of the Decade. “Few have given such philanthropy, and very few have tried to exercise such influence.”

1999: Freeman Hrabowski UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III earned the 1999 award for “nurturing excellence in mathematics and science among African-American men ... and public university-private industry partnerships to spur technology, job opportunities and regional development.”

2000: Bill Struever In 2000, The Sun honored developer Bill Struever because he “adopts buildings that others have discarded, neglected or marked for destruction. He sees what they want to be ... and with single-minded resolve, he helps them fulfill that potential.”

2001: The Ravens The Ravens won the Super Bowl and (collectively) Marylander of the Year in 2001.

2002: John Waters “Hairspray” became a Broadway smash, and John Waters became Marylander of the Year.

2012: Buck Showalter The Sun resumed honoring Marylanders of the Year in 2012 with the Orioles manager who helped bring the team back to the postseason for the first time in 15 years.

2013: Ben Jealous The NAACP head was instrumental in Maryland's decisions to abolish the death penalty and enact marriage equality.

2014 Larry Hogan The Republican's improbable win in the governor's race “upended our notions about political campaigns and shook up the state's power structure in a way that will have lasting impact.”

2015 Barbara Mikulski The longest-serving woman in Congress “has always had an uncommonly good ear for what the common man and woman thinks and an incomparably loud voice for repeating it to the powers-that-be.”