Habitat for Humanity: Building house number 11 in Nevada

Last week the Nevada Rotary Club Citizen of the Year Award was presented to a worthy recipient, Bob Beaver, retired educator and a community volunteer who's been especially active with Habitat for Humanity.

Many of us receive awards and many others do work deserving of honors. Bob has done much for the community and society. He's a good worker. Special recognition has been long in coming. In recent years, I have considered that Bob as deserving of special recognition for the contributions he has made in many ways.

Often when it comes time for nominating a person for a special recognition, a person becomes blank on who to nominate. The person or persons nominating Bob for this award is to be complimented in making the nomination. The selection committee is also to be complimented for making the right choice.

The ceremony was a great event in recognition of a great citizen of this community. The event went smoothly and was well organized. Bob received a certain amount of roasting, which provided good humor, but he received a great amount of praise and recognition for what he has done as well.

Even though you might have known a person for several years, you still learn more about the person at an event of this type.

It has been my honor to have known Bob for several years, perhaps longer than I even realized. As a lay leader at the United Methodist Church, I have heard him when he filled in and delivered the sermon. Each time he delivers a sermon, it has been good. He has taught the Disciple courses, with which I have been involved. His teaching methods were great. These courses of study are deeply involved, with much reading over several weeks. It requires much of the students, but the leader receives special training and puts a greater amount of effort into the course. Bob also has filled in at other churches and served as a minister for one congregation for several weeks. He has held many other positions of leadership in the church. We are currently in an early morning Bible study together.

One of the great things that we have in this community is the volunteers for the Habitat for Humanity. Bob has dedicated his time, talent and efforts toward this program. He has been a volunteer for this program for several years; his leadership has included being president of the board for five years.

Bryan Bloom, Rotary president, led for the event. He read the criteria for the recognition. As I listened, my thoughts were that Bob has met each of the points that were included. Bob is an active member of the Nevada Rotary Club.

Prior to giving the invocation, the Rev. Ralph Clark, United Methodist Church, started the roasting on Bob, but also gave him recognition for being a faithful member of the church and for his leadership to the church.

A letter was read by Brian from Jerry Winston, former director of the Vocational Technical School, who was Bob's supervisor for several years. He talked about the great job he did as an educator and the good relationship Bob had with the students and faculty.

Larry Tucker, Bob's brother-in-law, started his talk about the young quiet boy that kept showing up at the Kelso's. He shared information about Bob being a good family man and the good relationships he developed with family members.

Darrell Wright, a Habitat board member, shared humor that had happened in building a house, although Bob may not have thought it was humorous at the time. Darrell also shared some of the things that Bob had done for Nevada Habitat for Humanity.

Jeff Feuquay presented a PowerPoint presentation featuring pictures taken different times of Bob's life and pictures of family members. I assume that Bob had always been an educator and was surprised to learn that he worked for Firestone for two years after graduating from Pittsburg State University. He went to Central Missouri State University to obtain teaching credentials before starting his career in education. He taught at Windsor and Camdenton before coming to Nevada. He was the distributive education teacher, vocational resource educator at Nevada Regional Technical School from August 1973 to May 1986; assistant principal at Nevada Middle School June 1986 to May 1995; and principal at the high school from June 1995 to May 2000. Since retiring he has worked as salesman/broker at Haggans Real Estate.

He has had many honors as well as many community affiliations. During his career in education, he was affiliated with professional organizations and held leadership positions as well as receiving special honors. One of the things that the slides presented is that Bob will continue to serve potatoes at the monthly baked potatoes fund raising event for Habitat for Humanity to build another house. Feuquay then presented the plaque to the recipient.

When accepting the recognition, Bob commented that there are many volunteers who are accomplishing many things, giving recognition to others. Bob's wife Constance was presented with a bouquet of flowers for the support she had given to the Citizen of the Year.

Special congratulations go to Bob for being named as the 2009 Citizen of the Year.

You have done much and are continuing to do many things for the community and for society.

It is appreciated by the citizens of this community.