It is a “club” that now has more than 380 members and though you would surely know the names of many of them — Walter Payton, Hillary Clinton, Jim Lovell, Mahalia Jackson, Joseph Bernardin and Jack Benny, for instance— it’s doubtful that you know the name of the organization that has invited people to become members.

That would be the Lincoln Academy, a commendable but nevertheless relatively uncelebrated nonprofit, non-partisan organization that has been around since the mid-1960s and will induct a new group on April 11 in ceremonies on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.

Its purpose, in part, is to honor “individuals whose contributions to the betterment of humanity have been accomplished in or on behalf of the State of Illinois, or, whose achievements have brought honor to the state because of their identity with it.”

One of the new members will be my former colleague Blair Kamin, the Tribune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic until retiring in 2021 after more than 30 years at the paper. He, along with four others — Larry Gies, the founder and CEO of Madison Industries; Valerie Jarrett, political advisor and CEO of The Obama Foundation; Reginald Petty, educator, civil rights activist and historian; and longtime political fixture Jesse White — are the 2026 recipients of the Order of Lincoln.

The award medal is Illinois’ highest honor for professional achievement and public service. This insignia is a variant of a Maltese cross, with a red-bordered, white-enameled 10-point star that features the Great Seal of Illinois on the front and a gold likeness of President Lincoln on the back.

Kamin is excited, though he was unaware of the Lincoln Academy until he received the news by mail, with a letter from Gov. JB Pritzker. “I was happily surprised,” he says. “Look, I am actually not the best writer in this house. That would be my wife (former Tribune writer Barbara Mahany). But it is nice to be recognized. And no, I did not know anything about the Lincoln Academy but it didn’t take me long to find out. It’s amazing to be getting an award that’s gone to such journalistic giants as Royko, Ebert, Carol Marin and Bill Mauldin.”

Marc Schulman understands Kamin’s reaction, saying, “True, it is a bit under the radar but I am so glad Blair is pleased.”

Schulman is the civic-minded president of The Eli’s Cheesecake Company. He tells me, “I had known about the academy for a long time and it’s been special to me. Growing up, Ralph Newman, the Lincoln historian and bookshop owner, was a dear friend of our family and a mentor to me. As a lawyer, I worked for Marshall Burman who was chancellor for the academy for many years.”

He remembers years ago sitting in the radio studio as his friend (and Newman’s stepson) Scott Simon, host of NPR’s “Weekend Edition.” “It was the Saturday before President Obama’s inauguration in 2009,” he said. “In the studio I met Gayl Pyatt, an attorney and trustee of the academy. One thing led to another and she would up recommended me for appointment by Governor Quinn and I have been on the board ever since.”

In the small-world department, Newman was instrumental in the birth of the Lincoln Academy. It happened inside the State of Illinois pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. Newman saw the debut of a life-sized figure of Lincoln, created by Walt Disney. It was called an Audio-Animatronic replica of the president and was a sensation, so life-like that it scared some. Not Newman and his friend, businessman Michael Butler. This Lincoln inspired them to create the Lincoln Academy. Butler, one of the most dashing figures in Chicago history, would become its first chancellor and a few years later, produce the musical “Hair.”

So, ever since 1964, the Academy has been in the business of presenting the Order of Lincoln. In 1975, it added an annual Student Laureate event that honors seniors from each college and university in the state, of which there are currently 53, with ceremonies held in the fall. There is also a  Hall of Fame of Historic Illinoisans, a 50-member eclectic group that includes such folks as Jane Addams, Sauk Chief Keokuk and Ernest Hemingway.

Since it’s likely you will not be among those in attendance on April 11, I asked Kamin if I could “steal” some of what he plans to say. Each recipient is asked to keep their remarks to three or four minutes.

Kamin starts by thanking the governor and the academy “for this great honor,” and his wife and their sons, Will and Teddy, “for supporting me along this journey.” He then tells a story.

“One day, years before the lanky Mr. Lincoln became president, he wandered into the empty office of Tribune editor Joseph Medill. When Medill returned, he found Lincoln’s enormous, dusty boots sprawled across his desk.

“‘Dammit, Abe,’ Medill shouted, ‘get your feet off my desk!’ Then, the two men smiled and shook hands as Lincoln’s boots hit the floor. We at the Tribune loved this tale for two reasons: If Big Jim, Rosty, Blago or Barack ever strolled into Tribune Tower and tried to throw their weight around, we knew how to respond — fearlessly!

“Yet the Medill-Lincoln encounter also revealed that the two were on friendly terms — allies, if not quite partners. For Medill’s Tribune would do more than any other newspaper to propel Lincoln to the White House. Without its support, there might have been no Gettysburg Address. No victory in the Civil War. And no Lincoln Memorial.”

That’s all I am willing to steal. But I will tell you that the rest of it is lively and brilliant. And I can happily tell you that after the World’s Fair, the animatronic Lincoln was moved to Disneyland in 1966, by which time Newman and Butler and a few others had successfully launched the Lincoln Academy, about which you now know more than you knew a few minutes ago.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com