SANDER GETS FULENWIDER HONOR

JACKSON -- Cape Girardeau County Associate Commissioner Leonard F. Sander is the recipient of this year's R.A. Fulenwider Meritorious Community Service Award.

The award was presented during the annual Jackson Chamber of Commerce officer's installation banquet Monday night.

The Fulenwider award was established in memory of the late Jackson businessman and community and civic leader. It is presented each year by the Jackson Chamber of Commerce to a person who has made a significant contribution toward the life of Jackson.

Sander was born in Tilsit and moved to Jackson in 1926 as a boy with his family.

Sander was a Jackson businessman for 42 years. He started in business in Jackson in 1934 with his brother, Charles W. Sander, and his father, C.H. Sander, as co-owner of C.H. Sander Sales Co. The business was sold in the 1960s.

In 1967, Leonard Sander started a new Jackson business, Sander's Appliance Co. The business was sold in 1978.

Sander is a past president of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce and a member of the chamber for over 45 years.

Sander served on the Jackson Board of Aldermen from 1951-1954. He served 17 years on the park board, where he was chairman during four of those years.

He was a member of Jackson's first all-volunteer fire department prior to World War II and as chairman of the first Civil Defense unit in Jackson after the end of the war.

Sander is a veteran of World War II. He served with the Naval air forces in the North and South Pacific.

Sander was first elected to county office in 1970 as circuit clerk of Cape Girardeau County. In 1976, he was elected as 1st District county judge, which, in 1984, was changed to the name county commissioner.

Sander is now serving his eighth, two-year term as 1st District associate county commissioner.

He is a member of the Cape County Planning and Zoning Commission.

Sander has been a member of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Association for over 30 years.

He was instrumental in helping start Little League baseball in Jackson and served as a Babe Ruth baseball coach in the early 1970s.

In 1984, Sander was the winner of the Friend of Agriculture Award by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce for his personal efforts toward improvements in agriculture in Cape County.

Sander was a 4-H club class instructor in the 1960s.

Sander's name was added to the University of Missouri Extension Leader Honor Role for his work in helping develop and carry out local extension programs in 1983.

Last year Sander was the winner of the 1990 Humanitarian Award from the Professional Black Men's Club of Southeast Missouri for his efforts to promote humanitarian efforts on the local level.

He is married to the former Aleene Illers. They have two sons: Fritz of Edina, Minn., and Paul of Jackson, who is a Jackson alderman and the 1991-92 Jackson Chamber of Commerce president.

Other new chamber officers installed Monday were Steve Popp, vice president, and Jim Maevers, secretary-treasurer.

New officers for the Jackson Industrial Development Co. are: Jim Tyler, president; David Hoelscher, vice president; and Mysie Keene, secretary-treasurer.

New officers for the Jackson Industrial Development Authority are: David Beasley, president; Kent Puchbauer, vice president; and Tim Schwent, secretary-treasurer.

Guest speaker at the dinner was Dr. Linda Godwin of Oak Ridge, who was one of the NASA astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis during a mission in April.