Area leaders lauded at Rusk banquet

RUSK — Leaders from across East Texas met on Saturday to recognize and reward the efforts of five people who have helped make Rusk and East Texas a better place to live.

The varied list of honorees included a doctor, three state officials and a woman who was recognized for her behind-the-scenes work with the Rusk Industrial Foundation.

“We appreciate people who dedicate their lives to make the world a better place and we have five here tonight,” said Jim Perkins, president of Citizens First Bank and chairman of the honoree selection committee. “We appreciate the opportunity to say thank you.”

Each honoree was given the Outstanding Texan Leo Tosh Award, named after the foundation's first president, Leo Tosh, in its establishment over 50 years ago.

Don Gilbert

As a former Commissioner of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Retardation, and Commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Don Gilbert worked closely with Rusk leaders with its state hospital.

“Our first recipient is a gentleman, as my dad would say a gentleman of the old school, and very talented, able and dedicated to helping other people,” Perkins said. “He has has helped tens of thousands of other people.”

Gilbert said he has worked with the leaders in Rusk for more years than he could count, and he believes the community has its heart in the right place and cares about maintaining the services which are so important to people with psychiatric needs.

“At the end of the day, I think about it sort of winding down the most active part of my career, all you are really left with is the friends you meet along the way,” he said. “And the friends I have met and kept in Rusk, Texas have been very special to me. Thank you so much for this award. I'm just delighted to be here with you.

Robert Nichols

State Sen. Robert Nichols owns four businesses, created over 900 jobs and holds 32 patents, Perkins said. He worked his way through Lamar University selling fireworks and pressing clothes, and has worked in the Texas Senate since 2006.

Nichols said two sessions ago, there was a huge tussle over funding for state hospitals in the Texas legislature, and leaders from the region, Rep. Chuck Hopson and Gilbert pulled together to keep the cuts to a minimum.

“This last session, which was the most brutal I have personally ever seen in decades with all the cutting that went on, they left the hospital alone totally, which I was real tickled to do,” Nichols said.

“The railroad, the prison system, all of those would not be possible without the efforts of you.”

Dr. Jim Swink

Dr. Jim Swink, “the Rusk Rambler,” was an all-american football player and runner up for the Heisman Trophy in 1955, Perkins said. He turned down an opportunity to play professional ball to go to medical school, where he studied to become an orthopedic surgeon and doctor. He went to Vietnam where he earned a Purple Heart. Swink came back to Rusk seven years ago after a career and successful practice in Tyler and currently works for the Rusk State Hospital.

“From any perspective the athlete, the (veteran), the student, the doctor, someone who cares for others, he tops (all others),” Perkins said.

Swink said he came to Rusk at age 13 in 1950. He said both his parents were taken to the hospital for an extended time for tuberculosis, and Swink, originally from Sacul and eldest of seven, came to Rusk to play football.

“I wanted to go to a bigger school, so Rusk was big to me,” Swink said. “I met a wonderful couple who sort of took me in over here. I stayed with them until I graduated from high school here in Rusk and enjoyed my years here very much.”

Nancy McKean

Nancy McKean has worked for Citizens First Bank and the Perkins family for 37 years. She worked behind the scenes on most of the foundations' initiatives, typing letters, persuading officials and setting up interviews, Perkins said. She even set up a birthday cake to be presented to a congressman by a woman in a guerilla suit, just so the congressman would not forget the city when he want back to Washington.

“We tried to figure up how many sets of minutes and words that she has done in typing for the bank for the Rusk Industrial Foundation, for the Kawanis Club, different civic organizations, political activities and it has to be over 1 million words,” Perkins said.

McKean said results do not come from one person, but rather a dedicated team of people. She said she loved Rusk the minute she set eyes on it, saying “you don't have to be born here to know it's a great place.”

“I suppose I have prepared thousands of letters, set up hundreds of appointments and typed maybe half a million words of minutes, but of course I have not been the only one doing these things,” she said. “It's been a team effort for sure, but the end result, it has been and is, making our area the best area to live and to work.”

Chuck Hopson

Chuck Hopson was honored for his six terms, 12 years, of service to the community in the Texas house of representatives, serving as the chairman of the General Investigating and Ethics Committee, and member of the Health and Human Services Committee and the Natural Resource Committee.

“He served on the Jacksonville Independent School District Board, and then he served on the Jacksonville city council board,” Perkins said. “And he didn't make make enough people mad to keep him from being the citizen of the year in Jacksonville.”

Chuck said while the Legislature was battling funding for state hospitals, he, Gilbert and Nichols met at Citizens First Bank. He said after a particularity tough meeting, Charles Hassell, the foundation's president, asked what he could do to help.

“And that's the attitude that this whole community has, 'what can I do to help ya?'” Hopson said. “And that what they did, and we all worked together … Thank you for this great community, allowing me to represent you and thank you for this foundation for this very prestigious award”

The foundations president, Charles Hassell, said the foundation has been instrumental in helping bring a chicken plant, sausage plant, golf course, a motel, the Tyler Junior College nursing program to Rusk, and purchased land which became the prisons in Rusk.

Homepage

Search Results

Discussion

Area leaders lauded at Rusk banquet

Site Map

Contact Us