Most Honored Arkansas ASHRAE President

Arkansas ASHRAE History

Russell Black - Historian 

As we have entered into the third decade of the 21^st century, I was curious to know who was the most highly honored Arkansas ASHRAE President of the past two decades.  While we have had many, many outstanding Presidents the past two decades, the most highly honored ASHRAE President of the new century is Kim Koch. 

Here is a list of Kim’s awards:  2008 – CTTC Region VIII Award, 2009 – Region VIII Golden Gavel Award (Chapter Award), 2009 – Jack Thompson Award, 2014 – Chapter Service Award.

To put these achievements into perspective, the Golden Gavel Award and the Jack Thompson Award would be the Hollywood equivalent of winning an Oscar for Best Picture AND Best Director. 

Here are the descriptions for the two awards according to official ASHRAE documents:  1) Golden Gavel – “The Golden Gavel is awarded to the chapter of the year. …Today, the PAOE is still put forth by the Society President each year defining the official goals for accomplishment and winning the Golden Gavel competition is still the ultimate achievement of a chapter.” 2) Jack Thompson – “This award is dedicated to Jack Thompson who created the Golden Gavel Award and was an inspirational member of Region VIII and is the most prestige Regional award given to an individual that embodies the qualities of Chapter Leadership.”

So, in Kim’s presidential year, she won the two most prestigious yearly awards that Region VIII presents.  In fact, Kim was the first Arkansas ASHRAE President to sweep the two highest regional honors, and to this day is still only one of two Arkansas ASHRAE Presidents to have achieved this special double win.  Considering that Region VIII is routinely one of the top Regions in all ASHRAE (a bias alert here, but I believe this to be historically accurate), to be considered the top Chapter and top leader in our Region is a very formidable achievement.  This speaks volumes of Kim’s leadership abilities as she continues to support our chapter by routinely sitting on the Arkansas ASHRAE board of governors and serving on numerous Nominating Committees.