NILES — John Zabrucky received the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber’s Valley Champion Award on Thursday as the Trumbull County Historical Society continues its work to create a museum to honor his legacy.

The 1965 Warren G. Harding High School graduate is the founder of Modern Props, a southern California company that created pieces used in hundreds of movies, television series and commercials from 1977 until 2019.

Mark Lamoncha, CEO of Humtown Products and a member of the chamber’s board of directors, said during a breakfast Thursday at the Eastwood Event Centre honoring Zabrucky and other local business leaders that the Valley Champion Award was created to honor Mahoning Valley natives who’ve gone on to national or international success.

“What our recipient has done is simply amazing as this Warren native took his talents to Hollywood, and building key props for science fiction movies we all know and love,” he said.

Earlier this year, Zabrucky donated about 500 props created by his company to the historical society. Many of the props, which have been seen in such productions as “Blade Runner,” “Men in Black,” “Robocop” and the “Star Trek” franchise, could have fetched thousands from collectors if he’d decided to sell them instead of donating them for a museum in Warren.

“It’s my hometown, and I have a lot of great memories, and some not so great,” Zabrucky said. “But I spent a lot of time here, and I’m sort of a creature of habit in many aspects of my life. There was something, a kind of poetic justice, to having these things that I labored on end up in the city I was born in.”

A few of those props were on display at the breakfast, including a prop originally created for the 1970s TV series “The Incredible Hulk” that later appeared in the “Batman” films. There also was a large prop that appeared in so many movies, television series and commercials — more than 200 — that it’s been dubbed “The Most Important Device in the Universe” by sci-fi fans.

Zabrucky and his son, Michael, also attended a dinner and a cocktail reception on Wednesday hosted by the chamber.

“We are extremely grateful to the chamber for recognizing the contribution that John is making to the Mahoning Valley,” TCHS Executive Director Meghan Reed said. “The recognition John received is gratifying and humbling for us and an acknowledgment that so many people understand the impact of his work and are really excited for the potential of the science fiction museum.”

Zabrucky told the crowd at the sold-out breakfast, “I truly hope the collection in the future will only be the genesis of a much bigger collection from movies yet to be made, and all of you will come and pay the admission.”