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Keck deserving of Leader of the Year honor
For probably the last 15 years or so, my cousin, John Bill Keck, and I have had to this running joke pretty much every time we would bump into each other.
Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.
He would tell me that I should write something good about him? I replied back for him to have someone that knows something good about him to call me. Then I would look at whoever we were standing around with and note that in more than a decade, my phone had yet to ring. Then we all started laughing.
I guess you could say that I have now finally found somebody to say something good about John Bill (LOL), and we are going to have to come up with a new joke.
Last Thursday night, Leadership Tri-County named him as their 2022 Leader of the year and honored him during a banquet held at First Baptist Church in Barbourville. (Actually, he was first selected for the award in 2020, but then the banquet got cancelled the next two years due to the pandemic.)
The award puts him in some pretty prestigious company with the likes of U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, Senator Mitch McConnell, Terry Forcht, Nelda Barton-Collings, Tom Handy, Dr. Michael Colegrove, federal Judge Eugene Siler Jr. and Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley among others.
John Bill has led a most interesting life having been in the U.S. Army, been a teacher, a pilot, an insurance agent, a wedding photographer, a salesman and a businessman whose several business ventures have created hundreds of jobs.
He is also been very active in his church, Keck Baptist Church, where he has held a number of positions, including teaching Sunday school and being the choir leader.
Anyone, who knows John Bill Keck at all, knows that the man has never met a stranger and has never been at a loss for words for a day in his life. Put another way, he was born to be a salesman.
At 82 years old, he has absolutely no plans to retire either, and probably not even to slow down any time soon.
I am proud to call John Bill Keck a relative and a friend. Congratulations for this well-deserved honor. You’ve earned it.
Let me also extend my congratulations to the family of the late Curt Corey, who was honored by Leadership Tri-County last Thursday night with the 2022 Luminary Award.
Now to switch gears and talk about a few other topics before I conclude this column.
• Let me say a big thank you to all of our area veterans, especially the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice. Every Memorial Day I am reminded of a quote I heard one time that goes “the price of freedom is paid for by the blood of patriots.”
• Let me also say a big thank you to the Whitley County High School JROTC and Williamsburg’s VFW Post 3167, who, among others, were recently busy decorating the graves of local veterans in the days leading up to Memorial Day. I know the VFW purchased 1,400 flags for veterans’ graves this year.
• Kudos to The Corbin Arena staff, which has hosted 90 events over the last 22 months, including 50 events over the last 12 months. I am not sure that The Corbin Arena hosted that many events during the first five or six years of its existence.
It bears noting that several events actually took place over multiple days, such as the 13th Region Basketball Tournament and the SOAR Summit.
Arena Manager Kristina Balla and her small staff deserve a lot of credit to turning The Corbin Arena around and making it a real asset for our community.
