Awards

Keep America Beautiful

recipient of KAB’s Top Leadership Award

December 2010 ~ Orlando, Florida

. . . Randy is an exceptionally gifted and extraordinarily involved individual when it comes to personal stewardship in environmental education, preservation and enhancement.”

~ Matt McKenna CEO,Keep America Beautiful

Arkansas’ Randy Frazier Awarded

Keep America Beautiful’s Iron Eyes Cody Award

Local Man Honored for Outstanding Leadership in Community Improvement Programs

STAMFORD, Conn. – (Dec. 13, 2009) – Randy Frazier of Wye Mountain, Ark., received Keep America Beautiful’s top accolade when he was presented the Iron Eyes Cody Award at Keep America Beautiful’s 57th annual National Conference, which took place Dec. 8-10 in Orlando, Fla.

The Iron Eyes Cody Award was created in honor of Keep America Beautiful’s landmark public awareness campaign of the 1970s, which is credited with awakening the environmental consciousness of an entire generation of Americans. This award is given to a man who is an outstanding leader in promoting Keep America Beautiful’s mission. This year’s recipient was honored for his dedication to the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission and the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation, as well as other Keep America Beautiful state and local affiliates.

Frazier, president of Frazier Communications, has equally applied his professional leadership and training abilities to generously volunteering his time and talent to KAB and many of KAB’s state affiliates. He has contributed his professional services and guidance at State Conferences in Arkansas, Mississippi/Alabama, Nebraska, South Carolina and Tennessee, and at national conferences. Additionally, Randy has also contributed significantly to the KAB State Leaders Council by helping to facilitate the group’s annual meetings.

Frazier further volunteers his considerable leadership skills to promote and advance KAB ideals through his service to his local affiliate, Keep Little Rock Beautiful, as an organizing Board Member, and to the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. Frazier has been appointed to consecutive terms on the Commission by two Arkansas Governors to represent the 2nd Congressional District and is the immediate past Commission Chairman. He has attended several KAB National Conferences in this capacity. He also serves as a Board Member of the volunteer-led, nonprofit Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation, where he helps to support and enhance the programs of the Commission.

Keep Arkansas Beautiful Executive Director Bob Phelps said of Frazier: “I believe that Randy Frazier embodies the spirit and practice of the standards of the Iron Eyes Cody Award through his beliefs, his values, his education, interests and experience. He lives them out daily in his life while quietly teaching and inspiring others to meet and follow his example.”

About Keep America Beautiful, Inc.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. This national nonprofit forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. For additional information, visit www.kab.org.

Excerpts from the two page letter of nomination submitted by: Robert Phelps, Director, Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission

. . . Randy’s formal environmental interest encompasses a degree in Biology and a thirty year career as a naturalist, educator and administrator with Arkansas State Parks , but also includes a passionately lived-out mission he developed while Superintendent of Pinnacle Mountain State Park, the state’s largest having environmental education as its theme – “To preserve and promote a natural environment in an urban setting and to enhance understanding and appreciation of the natural world through environmental education.”

In the course of his professional responsibilities for operating an Environmental Education State Park, Randy was often recognized for personal environmental leadership and accomplishments. Even a cursory examination of his resume, attached, will reveal recognition and awards that range from Conservation Educator of the Year to special distinction from the Arkansas Dept. of Volunteerism, many professional development achievement awards and the distinction of being an Outstanding Young Man in America and Arkansas Outstanding State Employee.

. . . But the essence of Randy Frazier’s values matching those held strongly by KAB, is bound up in work with the Arkansas Edith and Henry Halberg Audubon Ecology Camp for youth, a week-long camp that serves 11 and 12 year olds. For over 30 years the camp has been making a huge difference in the lives of many children. His reflection of this experience: “As Camp Directors and Instructors, we were “death on litter” to the surprise of a lot of children. By the end of the week they got the message: Don’t complain… COMPLY. Probably more than a few thought we were fanatical about composting and recycling everything, and I mean everything; but it made a big impression on a lot of young minds. I’m guessing many of them today are still converted to conservation as a result.”

. . . Randy Frazier’s involvement in KAB transcends his personal environmental interests; he equally applies his professional leadership and training abilities to generously volunteering his time and talent to KAB State Affiliates.

. . . Additionally, Randy has also contributed significantly to the KAB State Leaders Council. Through his insightful and experienced ability, he allows the group to accomplish a great deal in a condensed time by guiding members to focus on the sharing of comparative, relevant information to reach consensus on issues.

. . . He has been appointed to terms on the Commission by two Arkansas Governors to represent the 2^nd Congressional District and is the immediate past Commission Chairman, having attended several recent KAB National Conferences in this capacity. Randy is also a Board Member of the volunteer-led, non-profit Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation, providing leadership to augment, support and enhance the programs of the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission.

. . . Though as passionate and involved with environmental education as Randy is, he is not a one dimensional individual. His certifications include First Degree Black Belt, Karate, Arkansas Emergency Medical Technician Instructor and Commissioned Law Enforcement Officer, Even today; he continues to actively serve as an instructor to Law Enforcement Agencies.

But even in these pursuits, his environmental concern is evident. This is perhaps best expressed through his shared experience while Superintendent at Pinnacle Mountain State Park: “Needless to say, if you walk in the door every morning with that sustaining mission statement (as shown on page one) written in big letters across the wall, it tends to seep into your bones.”

And he continues to not just talk the talk, but to walk the walk, as he did then: “As far as I know, I’m the only park person to have ever written a littering citation – to the nice lady who delivered our mail. I couldn’t believe she would throw out a napkin and cup of ketchup just before putting mail in my box. And she couldn’t believe I’d retrieve it, chase her down a mile up the road, (in civilian clothes no less), and write her a citation.”

. . . The Iron Eyes Cody Award symbolizes the highest ideals and practices that a male volunteer can demonstrate to exert exceptional leadership in raising public awareness about litter prevention, roadside and community beautification, solid waste issues and the need for citizen participation in activities that preserve and enhance natural resources and public lands. I believe that Randy Frazier embodies the spirit and practice of these standards through his beliefs, his values, his education, interests and experience. He lives them out daily in his life while quietly teaching and inspiring others to meet and follow his example.

“Seldom does a Keep America Beautiful affiliate have the opportunity to attract and engage a volunteer with the qualifications of this year’s recipient, Randy Frazier,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Matthew McKenna at the awards ceremony. “But Randy is an exceptionally gifted and extraordinarily involved individual when it comes to personal stewardship in environmental education, preservation and enhancement.”

Frazier’s formal training and environmental interest encompasses a degree in Biology and a 30-year career as a naturalist, educator and administrator with Arkansas State Parks where he served as Superintendent of Pinnacle Mountain State Park.

In the course of his professional responsibilities for operating an Environmental Education State Park, Frazier was often recognized for personal environmental leadership that ranged from Conservation Educator of the Year to special distinction from the Arkansas Department of Volunteerism. His work with the Arkansas Edith and Henry Halberg Audubon Ecology Camp for youth, a week-long camp that serves 11- and 12-year-olds, has made a lasting impact on the lives of many children.

Joined on stage by four-year-old granddaughter, Audrey Joy Norman, Frazier reminded the audience: “Conservationists can be hard people to live with… but they make great ancestors.”

Past Recipients of the Iron Eyes Cody Award

1988 Carl Garner Arkansas

1989 Bob Timberlake North Carolina

1990 Not awarded

1991 Not awarded

1992 Gerald Stoops California

1993 Dr. John Edward Stokes North Carolina

1994 Not awarded

1995 R.V. “Dick” Schmaltz Georgia

1996 Ben Avery (posthumously) Arizona

1997 Not awarded

1998 Roger W. Powers Arizona

1999 Clyde McKee New Mexico

2000 Stan Weik Texas

2001 Senator Dale Bumpers Arkansas

2002 Jim Steele Georgia

2003 Ed Davis Texas

2004 John Enriquez California

2005 Col. Wyatt McGhee North Carolina

2006 Judge Larry Potter Tennessee

2007 Rep. Robert Ray Georgia

2008 Russell Bauman Brecheen Jr Tennessee

2009 David Howrath Texas

2010 Randy Frazier Arkansas

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