76th Annual Dinner
Annual Dinner Highlights
One hundred fifty chamber members and guests gathered at the Grey Goose Golf Club on Thursday January 18 for the 75 th annual Chamber Dinner and awards. The evening was kicked-off with a social time at 5:45 with gourmet coffees and lattes provided by The Next Page Bookstore. Collier Insurance sponsored the "coffee bar".
Following the welcome by Master of Ceremonies Jim Compton and prayer by Rev. Mark Beers, president of the Decatur Ministerial Association those present enjoyed a fine dinner catered by Grey Goose and served by the students of St. Joe School. During dinner Jeff Blackburn and Chester Longenberger entertained.
Following dinner MC Jim Compton introduced 2006 Chamber President Pete Stephenson (Gold Shield of Indiana) who passed the president's gavel to 2007 President Charlie Walters (Bunge North America).
Coni Mayer, assisted by Chamber Executive Director Wes Kuntzman, presented the Stephen Decatur Award to Jim and Judy Howenstine (True Value and Just Ask Rental).
The Small Business award was presented to Harry Meyer of the Galley by Mara Gerke, Vice President of the Chamber retail division.
Then Chamber Board member Matt Dyer (Eichhorn Jewelry) presented the Large business award to EMBARQ. Jack Moore, Manager of Community Relations for EMBARQ received the award. EMBARQ has been the telephone provider for Decatur since at least the 1930's. The have operated under several different names:
Citizens Telephone Company (-1968)
United Telephone (1968-1985)
Sprint (1985-2006)
EMBARQ (2006 - Present)
Following the award presentations Dr. Dennis E Hensley spoke on the subject of the "Six waves of the Economic Future":
- From status quo to flexibility
- From passivity to interactivity
- From human power to automation.
- From competition to cooperation.
- From mass market to micro marketing.
- From vogue to value.
Dinner guests were challenged to "catch the wave" rather than be swamped by it.
Dr. Hensley is a prolific writer and his books are available through special order from The Next Page Bookstore 724-9027
Commodore Stephen Decatur
Born in Maryland in 1779 and raised in Philadelphia, Stephen Decatur showed
evidence of the bold and courageous man he would become: he was known to
dive from the tips of jib (sail) booms and at an early age defended his mother
from a would-be attacker. Also, he was commissioned a midshipman in 1798
and within a year he was promoted to a Lieutenant.
By 1804, Decatur, commanding the ship Intrepid, encountered and burned the
captured United States frigate Philadelphia docked in the harbors of Tripoli,
Libya. The Philadelphia had been captured earlier by Tripolitan gunboats.
Known as the Tripolitan War (1801-1805), after periods of
strife, it began when the government of Tripoli attacked the
U.S. consulate. That action followed the United State’s
refusal to satisfy other Tripolitan demands. The phrase in
the U.S. Marine Corps official song “to the shores of
Tripoli” refers to the first engagement of U.S. land
forces in North Africa. Decatur had become one of the most
striking figures of that conflict.
Praised for his decisive style of leadership, Decatur subsequently
received the commission of Captain with responsibilities for
the gunboat flotilla guarding the Chesapeake and later command
of all U.S. Naval forces along the southeast coastal area.
He had many notable roles in the War of 1812. Then, in 1815,
Decatur commanded a nine-ship squadron and headed back to northern
Africa - to Algiers to settle conflicts. His abilities to negotiate
were recognized after he secured a treaty with the Algerians
and extracted compensation from the Tripoli government for
damages incurred in the earlier war there.
During celebration of the truce with the North African States,
Decatur declared his famous line: “Our country! In her
intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right;
but our country right or wrong.”
Decatur’s death was predictably both heroic and tragic.
As a Navy Commissioner, he opposed a reinstatement of Captain
John Barron whom he had earlier suspended. Barron responded
with a challenge to duel with the much younger Decatur. Ever
the honorable person, Decatur allowed only a short distance
of eight (8) paces out of respect for Barron’s faulty
eyesight and claimed he would not fire to kill. At the first
exchange, Barron was shot in the thigh, Decatur received a
fatal shot. All of Washington turned out to mourn the hero
who remains today a prominent figure in U. S. Naval history
and the namesake of our community.
