Awards presented at Chamber of Commerce banquet

(UPDATED WITH NOMINATION LETTER – JAN. 22)

Bill Hunt of Texas Ragtime Inc. was named the Athens Chamber of Commerce 2012 Citizen of the Year Friday night at the annual chamber banquet.

The award was presented by last year’s Citizen of the Year, Judith McGilvray.

Outgoing Chamber Chairman Tony Kalawe stepped down and welcomed new chairman, Mark Allen.

Other award winners included:

• Reindeer Games: Don Lawyer
• Ambassador of the Year: Kim Hodges
• Small Business of the Year: The Ship Shop
• Large Business of the Year: First State Bank

Check out our Facebook photo album.

The nomination letter for Hunt follows:

We proudly nominate Dr. Arch William (Bill) Hunt for Athens Citizen of the Year 2012.

Bill is an outstanding individual who exemplifies a strong leader grounded in good
morals, sound judgment and consistent drive. He arrived in Athens in 1996 and has
been deeply involved in community affairs for the past 16 years. His background as
a college professor (University of Texas-Austin), a restaurant
entrepreneur (Fuddrucker’s start-up) and as a trained physicist has allowed him to
excel on many fronts. Some of his accomplishments that we feel have been important to Athens are as follows:

1. He brought to Athens an international company (Texas Ragtime) which consistently
employs approximately 50 people and adds about $1,000,000 each year to the Athens
economy. This was done without the aid of incentives or tax abatements. He took
all the risks and now owns a very successful company.

2. He has served on numerous community boards, including committees to better our
public schools (speaking out for passage of school bonds and improved standards)
and is currently very active as a member of the Cain Center Board (has supplied
very innovative ideas to the Board, and has seen some of them successfully executed).
As a member of the Board of the Athens Country Club his ideas precipitated changes
which have been permanently adopted and are generally acknowledged to be good.
It is evident that if Bill is on a board, he is going to be an active contributor.

3. He served as President of the Athens Rotary Club and on its Board.

4. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Athens and has served on several
committees with distinction.

5. He has been generous in his financial contributions to the needs of Athens.

For these and other accomplishments that may be overlooked, we feel Bill Hunt would be a worthy Athens Citizen of the Year 2012.