Community Leadership Award

Posted by Jim Fitzgerald
For the most part someone does not join Rotary looking for fame or recognition and the Marshall Rotary club does not encourage or sponsor self-promotion schemes in any way. 
 
However Rotary does encourage participation in civic and humanitarian projects by all members in conjunction with service opportunities and responsibilities  available to all, as was the case in an award called the "Marshall Rotary Civic Achievement Award",  created in 1976. The Marshall Rotary Civic Achievement Award was given to active Rotarians in recognition of their service and  contributions to the local community. The proposal came from the Board of Directors, of the Marshall Rotary Club when it approved a proposal to establish an award to be called the “Rotary Civic Achievement Award.” This award was to recognize one Rotarian each year who best demonstrated extraordinary contributions to civic endeavors in Marshall and Harrison County. 
 

Dedication, accomplishments and willingness to serve in positions of leadership outside of the club should be considered as indicators in the Rotarian’s selection.  Although service to our fellow man within the Rotary Club itself is important and should not be ignored, the demonstration of the Ideal of Service to the larger community is the focus of this Civic Achievement Award.   The way it worked was this:

A select committee, composed of the Chairman of the Marshall City Commission, the County Judge of Harrison County and the President of the Marshall Chamber of Commerce, was given a roster of current members and ask to select not less than three and not more than five nominees whom they considered best represented Marshall and Harrison County.

These nominees were then submitted to a committee composed of the immediate three past presidents of the Marshall Rotary Club, from which the recipient of the award was chosen. The current Rotary President served as a non­voting ex-officio member of both committees, offering suggestions only when requested to do so by the committee.

 

Although the award was only presented for a few years, and during the years that the award was given, we do not know all of the recipients, but the the known recipients of the Civic Achievement Award were:

1976-1977  JACK S. MANN;  1977-1978 CHARLIE H. FLOWERS;   1978-1979 CHARLES SPANGLER; 
1979-1980 WILLIAM L. GAW, JR.;   1980-1981 RICHARD W. BLALOCK;  1981-1982  SAM R. MOSELEY;
1982-1983 LOUIS W. KARIEL, SR; 1983-1984  CHARLES B. SMITH; 1984-1985  H.A. “TONY” BRIDGE
1985-1986  JAMES E. PEARS; 1986-1987  SAM H. MOORE;  1987-1988  CECIL C. TOMLINSON
1988-1989  DR. ROBERT E. “JACK” CRAIG;  1999-2000  JIM TAYLOR;  2000-2001  RICHARD TURNER
 
While all of those those chosen to receive the award were the public" face of the Rotary at the time, so to speak, the rest of their fellow club members shared the recognition with great pride as if their own name was engraved on the plaque, and those of us who will be "Celebrating A Century of Changing Lives in Marshall and beyond" will honor and remember them too, August 24, 2019.