Chamber award goes to former mayor

Former Cape Girardeau mayor Al Spradling III won the Rush H. Limbaugh Award at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce's annual recognition dinner Friday evening.

Presenter David Limbaugh lauded Spradling for his community involvement in organizations such as American Legion Post 63, the Greater Cape Girardeau Area Benevolent Association and the Southeast Missouri State University Boosters. Spradling was mayor of Cape Girardeau from 1994 through 2002 and served on the Cape Girardeau City Council from 1988 through 1994.

Limbaugh said Spradling, a Cape Girardeau native, remains a humble icon of the community who was never content to sit on the sidelines.

"Tonight's honoree remains active in many of these organizations still today and currently serves as vice president of the board of regents of the Southeast Missouri State University," he said at the Show Me Center, where the dinner was held.

"This is quite an honor and quite a surprise," Spradling said, "I'll try to live up to it."

The award presented to Spradling was named for the late Rush H. Limbaugh Sr., a lawyer in Cape Girardeau for more than 75 years and the award's first recipient. The chamber established the award in 1989 to recognize exceptional effort on behalf of the community over an extended time.

The chamber delivered three other awards Friday evening. Viney Mosley of Hi-Tech Communications Inc. and Paula Myers, vice president with Alliance Bank, were both named Go-Getter of the Year for chamber volunteer work and recruitment.

CPU Inc. was named the Small Business of the Year.

"This is an honor and quite unexpected," said CPU president Frank Jones. "It's very much appreciated."

CPU Inc. was founded in 1977 with four employees originally as a service bureau specializing in data processing for area accounting firms. Today the company, now with 12 employees. has evolved into a full-service computer consulting and services firm providing services to more than 250 client firms in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

During the past six years, it has experienced an 105 percent increase in gross revenue.

Presenter Bill Vickery, director of the Southeast Innovation Center at Southeast Missouri State University, said customer satisfaction and reputation is the core of the company's philosophy of maintaining customer loyalty.

"The company's personal approach allows its clients to refer to them as both friends and business associates," Vickery said. "Client testimonial letters use words like integrity, trust, relationships and superior customer service when describing them."

At the end of the evening, 2007 committee chairman David Hutson, of Hutson's Fine Furniture, encouraged members to continue working toward expanding the committee's 1,300 membership.

"That's what builds us, that's what we need" to achieve continued success, he said.

carel@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127