Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Mullins Honored As Top Citizen At Annual Banquet

It was a night of awards, honors, accolades and surprises at the annual Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Banquet Saturday night.

The night began with a buffet-style dinner, followed by the third annual auction. Chad Cornelius acted as auctioneer and harangued the audience into bidding on the items for sale.

State Sen. Mike Ross bought an autographed Razorback football for $350, then gave it back to the Chamber to be auctioned off again. The second time it went for $300 and was kept by Carl Dalrymple, who had acquired the ball for the auction in the first place.

With the conclusion of the auction came the past president's award, with a Powerpoint photo essay of Cornelius's year in office.

Then it was the Ralph Harris family being recognized as the Nevada County Farm Family of the Year for 1999.

Harris said being so named was an honor for the family, as he and his wife, Claudine, were instilled with a love of farming by their parents.

Eric Shipp had the audience hopping as he performed "Hello L-O-V-E," "The River" and "Sold."

B.A. Delemar was named Treasure of Gold, but was not present to accept the award because of health reasons.

His son, Jim, accepted the plaque, saying his father regretted not being able to attend but would be proud of the honor.

A new award was introduced this year, the Business Leadership Award. It seemed everyone in the building knew who the recipient would be, with the exception of the person getting it  Chad Cornelius.

Chamber President Barbara Lowdermilk said this is an honor the Chamber felt has been overlooked, but is important to the community.

She said the recipient has been actively involved in various aspects of the community, supports Prescott High School athletics and initiated the efforts to get the Potlatch building in the Nevada County fairgrounds air conditioned.

About this time, it dawned on Cornelius he was the one Lowdermilk was talking about and turned red.

Lowdermilk continued, saying the recipient (who hadn't been named yet) was a past Chamber president, generating 800 members, opened the new Prescott Fitness Center and is always ready to lend a hand to help the community.

"This is a total surprise," Cornelius said after being named the first winner of the Business Leader Award. He thanked his family for their understanding.

Gary Benson, the featured speaker, followed telling the audience he was fortunate to have been raised in Arkadelphia and have people like State Rep. Percy Malone and Picayune owner John Ragsdale as his mentors.

Benson is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University where he earned a Master's degree in biology.

Upon graduating from college, he signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League.

He has been a referee with the National Basketball Association for 12 years, but has spent 25 years as an official.

Benson began officiating while in high school. There, he officiated fifth and sixth grade basketball games.

Interestingly, Benson, while playing football at OBU, officiated college basketball games.

He didn't go straight from college officiating to the NBA, but took a couple of detours, one as a teacher in Cabot, and the other, for 12 years, as a supervisor for Southwestern Bell Telephone.

This, he told the audience, prepared him for life in the NBA.

There are only 60 officials in the NBA, he said, and they are full-time employees of the National Basketball Association.

Each official gets their own laptop computer, with 165 plays downloaded into it. They must make calls on these plays and are graded on their decisions.

The idea behind this, he said, is to raise the level of consistency.

"No one wants to be the lead in for ESPN," Benson said. "This means something happened in your game."

Once the game is over, the stadium empty and everyone gone, the officials return to their hotel room and view tapes of the game to see what mistakes they made.

"We hope the plays we miss don't affect the outcome of a game down the stretch," he said. "We don't want to lose a game for anyone."

For the 1998 season the officials had 178 travel days, working from Oct. 1 through May 1. Benson said he saw home four or five nights a month.

"We live in airplanes and hotel rooms," he told those present.

The NBA is a business, he said, a billion dollar business. When an official misses a game they are fined $10,000, and are hit with a $100 fine for every pound overweight they are. Officials have weight restrictions they must adhere to.

Benson paid his way to an officiating camp in Los Angeles to learn more about basketball. While there, NBA scouts saw his work and called him back shortly after his session had ended.

Since then, he's been an NBA official.

One thing he said could help fans understand how officials call a game. According to Benson, referees are taught to watch defensive players as most fouls are committed by the defense during a game, and fouls are what can put a player on the bench and determine the outcome of a game.

For those who aspire to become a professional official in any sport Benson had one piece of advice "get an education, get an education, get an education."

Once Benson had concluded his talk, it was time for the final awards of the evening.

The Chamber volunteers were recognized by executive director Mary Godwin, who presented them with T-shirts. The volunteers, she said, donated 204 hours last year.

Next was a special award presented to Lenora Dalrymple and Ed Godwin for their assistance with the Chamber.

Then it was time for the Educator of the Year awards.

Dr. Gene Ross, Emmet superintendent, got things underway, saying this year's award was going to a rookie teacher  Traci Ellis.

"Students always recognize a good teacher first," he said.

Ellis, he continued, gives of herself, is interested in students, is the cheerleader sponsor, teaches the third grade during morning sessions and high school business in the afternoon.

Ellis, shocked at the honor, said it has been an interesting first year for her at Emmet.

She thanked the other teachers for selecting her, saying teaching is something she loves to do.

Nevada was next up, with Nevada High School Principal Blake Epperson presenting the award to Carrie Bowie.

He read notes from teachers and students about Bowie, with them saying she was caring, dedicated, professional and gracious. The students wrote Bowie gives good tests.

"It's a great honor," Bowie said of being honored. "I do what I love to do. These students are our future and if they are successful in class they will be successful in life."

The final educator award was presented by Prescott Superintendent Ron Wright, who bestowed it on an absent Howard Austin.

Austin, Wright said, was attending a principal's meeting in New Orleans and was unable to attend the banquet.

Then it was time for the most prestigious award of all  Citizen of the Year.

Lowdermilk said two different people nominated this person  William Mullins.

Mullins, she said, is involved on several boards, is a member of the Chamber, has served in the Arkansas National Guard for 20 years, is president of the Nevada County Rescue Unit and a vital part of developing a weather center in the area, and a devoted volunteer for the Prescott Curley Wolves.

Mullins thanked all for the honor of being chosen

"I enjoy serving the people of Nevada County," he said. "I'm now working on a new volunteer fire department in the Pleasant Hill area. We need to get it going to help the people in that part of the county."