The Kansas Citian of the Year Award is the highest honor The Chamber can bestow.
Presented at the Annual Dinner in November, the award is given “only to those persons whose civic contributions and achievements have reflected the insight, creativity and consciousness necessary to build and maintain a quality urban community.” The Kansas Citian of the Year Award is now recognized as the most significant honor bestowed upon a single individual by any organization in the metropolitan area.
The announcement of the award is a surprise – and each year presents a different challenge in making sure the unsuspecting award winner is, in fact, in the audience to receive it!
An indication of how times have changed: when the award was first presented in 1960, it was called the “Mr. Kansas City Award.”
Since that time, the list of award winners has grown to include dozens of men and women who have made a lasting and positive impact on their community.
Past Kansas Citians of the Year
2011 Kansas Citian of the Year
Johnson County banker and civic leader Robert W. Regnier was named “Kansas Citian of the Year” Tuesday night at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner meeting. Regnier, a former Chair of The Chamber, is President of the
Bank of Blue Valley.
Regnier is someone who has exhibited both a commitment to his home county and to the region as a whole. He was named “Mr. Johnson County” in 2004, and is being recognized by the Greater Kansas City Chamber for his work on behalf of the Greater Kansas City area.
Regnier is an entrepreneur, who started his business in a double-wide trailer at the intersection of 119th and Metcalf. Today the bank he owns has six locations and has contributed to the growth of Johnson County and the region.
The announcement of Regnier’s award was made by former Kansas Citian of the Year William “Bill” Hall, President of the Hall Family Foundation. Hall told the crowd of 1300, “Our Kansas Citian of the Year has a hard time saying, ‘no.’ The number of ‘yeses’ he’s given over the years is illustrated by a list of his current involvement:
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He is on the Board of the Johnson County Community College Foundation.
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Even though he bleeds K-State purple he is on the Board of Advisers to the University of Kansas Edward’s Campus.
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He is on the board of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.
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The Board of Trustees of the Midwest Research Institute, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
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He is a member of the Civic Council, on the Board of Union Station-Kansas City, and is a Past Chair of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Regnier’s award, local artist Jesse Small’s sculpture, “Blue Decoder”, was influenced by Small’s experience as an American artist in China. Small calls these forms “ghosts” and superstition is playfully depicted through a reference to the Pak-Man video game; the ghosts of his childhood. The scrambled letters and the title of “Decoder” refer to the difficulty and importance of language and communication.
Small’s artwork seeks to speak an international visual language that can be understood despite cultural barriers.