Yank Barry nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

The part-time Bradenton resident and member of legendary band The Kingsmen is nominated for his philanthropy work.

Yank Barry, the philanthropist and member of the legendary band The Kingsmen of "Louie, Louie" fame, has again been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

This time, the part-time Bradenton resident received the honor from boxer and Filipino politician Manny Pacqui�o and Luis Crisologo Singson, governor of the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines.

Barry recently returned from the Philippines, where he spent a week working with victims from a typhoon that hit the nation in late 2012 and killed more than 1,000.

This is the third nomination for the 65-year-old in as many years.

"It's an absolute honor," Barry said in a statement on Monday. "It's a bit overwhelming to think about it. I never set out to be recognized like this."

Yank Barry work has already earned him more than 20 international humanitarian and peace awards, including a 1999 Liberian Humanitarian award and the 2010 Gusi Peace Prize. In 2005, he was named as a Red Cross Humanitarian.

In the wake of his 30-year music career, Barry co-founded a nonprofit group - Global Village Champions Foundation - with Muhammad Ali that has donated 900 million meals to relief agencies and has spearheaded relief missions to disaster and war-torn countries.

First awarded in 1901, the Nobel Prize for Peace is widely regarded to be the most prestigious award of its kind. Previous recipients include U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. have also received the award. The laureates are announced in October.

Born in Montreal, Barry became a touring member of The Kingsmen in 1968. He pioneered the first quadraphonic album in 1970 and then then recorded the rock opera "The Diary of Mr. Gray." He later moved into songwriting and production, working with numerous artists, including Englebert Humperdinck.