Longtime Glendale resident Bhupesh Parikh and his wife, Kumud, were honored Sunday in the Glendale Community College Auditorium by the Glendale College Foundation and the Mahatma Gandhi Leprosy Foundation for outstanding contributions to the community.

In August 2005, the Parikhs donated $1,000,000 to the college through the Foundation for the construction of a new allied health building, which was named the Bhupesh Parikh Health Sciences and Technology Building.

Speakers at the event included esteemed members of the Indian community, Glendale Mayor Dave Weaver and Dr. Audre Levy, GCC superintendent/president. The program featured Indian music, dancing and food.

Bhupesh Parikh has lived in Glendale since 1969. He is a founding member of the Southern California Gujarati Cultural Society. He helped build the first Jain Center in Los Angeles and a school for physically challenged girls in his hometown of Kadi, India.

Parikh established a business in Glendale as a structural engineer and builder, credited with building many of the homes in the Verdugo Woodlands/College Park area of Glendale.