Jackson seeks more input for top Fulenwider award

Paul Sander, former longtime mayor of Jackson and current Ward 1 alderman, is asking the public's help to identify potential nominees for Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce's most prestigious honor, the R.A. Fulenwider Meritorious Community Service Award.

Bestowed every year since Fulenwider's death in 1978, the accolade is given to an individual who has dedicated his or her life to the betterment of Jackson and the surrounding area.

"According to the bylaws, the award recipient is chosen by all previous winners of the Fulenwider prize, but nominees can come from anyone," said Sander, himself a 1998 Fulenwider recipient.

"People don't know how the recipient is chosen and may wonder how to nominate someone," said Sander, who is joined in the effort to get the word out by fellow aldermen Dave Hitt and Dave Reiminger, both of the municipality's Ward 2.

Nominations, Sander said, may be made:

Jackson Ward 1 Alderman Paul Sander, seen here, along with two other members of the aldermanic council, are asking the public to submit nominations for the annual R.A. Fulenwider Meritorious Community Service Award, the Jackson Chamber of Commerce's top honor. Sander, who served as Jackson's mayor for 14 years, won the Fulenwider Award in 1998.File

Jackson Ward 1 Alderman Paul Sander, seen here, along with two other members of the aldermanic council, are asking the public to submit nominations for the annual R.A. Fulenwider Meritorious Community Service Award, the Jackson Chamber of Commerce's top honor. Sander, who served as Jackson's mayor for 14 years, won the Fulenwider Award in 1998.File

• via U.S. mail to Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce, c/o R.A. Fulenwider Award nomination, 1846 E. Jackson Blvd., Jackson, MO 63755;
• via email to director@jacksonmochamber.org.

Of note

Sander said previous Fulenwider award winners will meet around Wednesday, Nov. 1, to consider submissions with a goal of voting to select the 2024 winner by Wednesday, Nov. 15.

Nominations must be received before the end of October.

"We're doing this to improve our process and open it up to a public, which may not know it can be involved," Sander said.

Fulenwider, a druggist, founded his eponymous pharmacy in 1939 on High Street and operated it until his retirement 30 years later.

He is lauded as a civic leader, an advocate and Jackson community supporter who is feted for being at the forefront of practically every major civic and industrial development in the Cape Girardeau County seat community for much of his life.

Previous winners

Since inception in 1978, the winners list is as follows: the Rev. Walter Keisker; Bernard Schafer; Perry Grindstaff; Richard Davis; Larry Novak; Carlton Meyer; Mysie S. Keene; Carl Penzel; Sylvester Nothdurft; Dorothy Phillips; Melvin Lichtenegger; Gene Rusty Cracraft; Robert L. Hartle; Leonard F. Sander; Paul Bruening; T. Wayne Lewis; Stone Manes; Marjorie Grindstaff; Gene Penzel; Max Prill; Paul W. Sander; James R. Nelson; Donald R. Sievers; David Moll; Carl Talley; Arnold T. Strickert; Patsy Johnson; the Rev. Sam Roethemeyer; John M. Thompson; Lester Maevers; Marybelle Mueller; Jack Litz; Gerald Jones; David Hitt; Barbara Lohr; Dwight Johnson; Terri Tomlin; David Reiminger; Val Tuschhoff; Joe Thompson; Tom Ludwig; Tom Strickland; Kenny Loos; John N. Thompson; and Julie Rushing.