Rotary honors Trammel for investment in community

Dick Trammel’s father was a Rotarian in their hometown of Pocahontas. That meant Trammel grew up with “expectations” he would live up to Rotary ideals. “One of the greatest things in life is to help someone help themselves,” Trammel says he learned at a young age.
Dick Trammel’s father was a Rotarian in their hometown of Pocahontas. That meant Trammel grew up with “expectations” he would live up to Rotary ideals. “One of the greatest things in life is to help someone help themselves,” Trammel says he learned at a young age.

Dick Trammel was born an only child. But he's made sure over the ensuing 78 years that he has a family that stretches across four generations and friendships that circle the globe. He might well be the most recognizable man in Northwest Arkansas -- and one of the most recognized for his achievements.

Trammel is past president of the board of directors of the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce; recipient of the Chamber's Good Neighbor Award in 1982; the Pride of Rogers Award in 2000 and was honored by having that award renamed for him in 2007; a founding director of the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Benton County and received a Tribute award in 2000; a founding director of the Northwest Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute and received the 1997 Distinguished Service Award from the Arkansas Hospital Association; received an Eagle Award in 2001 from the Washington Regional Medical Foundation; was a charter member of the board of Northwest Arkansas Community College and received an NWACC Foundation Quality of Life Award in 2006; received the first Living and Giving Award from the Northwest Arkansas Branch of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in 2007; serves on the Arkansas Highway Commission until 2019 ... and so much more.

Go & Do

Rotary Award Luncheon

When: Aug. 2

Where: Embassy Suites in Rogers

Tickets: $60, available through Friday. Proceeds from the event will provide funding for the new neonatal intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital in Rogers as part of the upcoming expansion.

Reservations: Linda Phillips at (479) 640-2398 or [email protected]

Next month, another organization will honor Trammel for his contributions to the community. Now in its second year, the Rogers Rotary Club's Dick Daniel Distinguished Citizen Award, which Trammel will receive Aug. 2, uses three specific criteria:

• The nominee must have demonstrated excellence, creativity and initiative in improving the community.

• Provided valuable service by devoting time and energy to improving the quality of life for others in the community.

• And assisted others in developing and utilizing their full leadership potential in the community.

"This award came about as a way for the Rotary Club of Rogers to recognize individuals that have made a lasting impression on Rogers and Northwest Arkansas," says Allison A. McElroy, the club president. "Dick Trammel ... is a mentor, a visionary and has a deep commitment to Rotary. He is the epitome of the Rotary motto, 'Service Above Self,' by the way he takes an active part in serving those in need, promoting projects that enhance Northwest Arkansas and providing his expertise throughout the state of Arkansas on commissions and coalitions."

Although Trammel's parents were not rich, his father was a Rotarian in their hometown of Pocahontas. That meant Trammel grew up with "expectations" he would live up to Rotary ideals. "One of the greatest things in life is to help someone help themselves," Trammel says he learned at a young age. He also learned the power of what he calls "quiet influence" -- offering people a smile, being courteous, being kind and having a caring attitude.

Goals and successes

Trammel also learned to reach for the stars. Although his father had only a sixth-grade education, Trammel set his sights on the University of Arkansas and earned a degree in business administration in 1960. Along the way, he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, a Razorback cheerleader and made a lot of friends. Among the other awards he has collected over the years are the UA Alumni Association's Outstanding Community Service Award in 2001 and the Sigma Chi Fulbright Award in 2006.

After graduation, Trammel returned to Pocahontas and worked in the cotton gin and grain elevator business until 1970. He then became vice president and was a founding director of the Planters and Stockmen Bank -- while also serving as president of the local Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club, chairman of the Rolling Hills Country Club and president of the Randolph County Fair Association. He moved to Rogers in 1975 to become vice president of First National Bank & Trust Co., which later became Arvest Bank, and he currently is executive vice president and a member of the board of directors.

He's been blessed, Trammel says, to have an employer supportive of his work in Rotary. As district governor, he drove 22,000 miles across four states in six months and spoke to 71 Rotary clubs, he remembers. He was also part of the first group to go on a study exchange -- to Ukraine.

It was quite an experience for a boy from Pocahontas, Trammel says, recalling how poor the country first seemed to him. Then he met the grandmother and grandson who were his hosts on his first night. Their apartment was in what seemed to be a slum, in a dirty, run-down building -- but it was spotless. Trammel spent hours talking to the grandson, and "they treated me like a king." The trip both opened Trammel's eyes to the needs in the world and made him prouder to be an American, he says.

Dick Daniel

Dick Daniel, for whom the Rotary award is named, is a classic American success story the likes of Sam Walton, John Tyson, J.B. Hunt and Harvey Jones. He didn't create a company like Walmart Stores, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt Transport or Jones Truck Lines. But he did bring 500 jobs to Rogers in 1958.

It might not sound like much now. But in those days, the two or three major manufacturers in the tiny town -- population less than 5,000 -- boasted about 50 employees each. Five hundred new jobs were so significant the community raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help bring Daisy Manufacturing to Rogers. And Daisy Manufacturing became a cornerstone of Northwest Arkansas development, drawing 10,000 applicants from throughout the region for those first 500 jobs.

"It was the beginning of a real cascade," Daniel said.

He added that it didn't take long for the Rogers Noon Rotary Club to recruit him.

"I knew that I needed to become involved in the community," he says. "I wanted to be a good neighbor."

Dick Trammel first met Daniel at the Chamber of Commerce banquet in 1975.

"I said then, 'I'd like to be half the person I think Mr. Daniel is,'" Trammel recalled last summer.

"About a year later, I went on the bank board, and I got to know the real Dick Daniel," Trammel said. "The real Dick Daniel is a person with unbelievable integrity, character and vision. ... He's been involved in everything good that's happened in Rogers, Arkansas, since I've been here. One way or another, people always wanted his support, his vision, his opinion."

Friends and family

That also is the man Trammel has become.

"I have known Dick for over 20 years, and he always enters a room with enthusiasm, a positive presence and a ray of joy," says McElroy of her fellow Rotary member. "He is warm and works the room to ensure everyone feels welcome and appreciated. He has championed me throughout my entire career and always gives me just the boost of confidence I need. ... I always know he will be there if I need to ask advice. ... Dick Trammel is someone we can all strive to be like. He means the world to me."

Trammel is also a man to whom family means the world -- and they love him right back. He and wife Nancy -- whom he married in 2007 -- together have four children, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

"I am so blessed to have Nancy as my best friend, my wife and my mate," he says. "She has been so great for our blended family. My kids love her, my grandkids adore her. ... They all love 'Miss Nancy.' And she has supported me all nine years."

Nancy Trammel laughs and says, although she knew how dedicated her future husband was to Northwest Arkansas -- and "the state of Arkansas, really" -- she might not have understood "to what extent."

"Even though he's not a politician, he's one of the biggest politicians in Northwest Arkansas," she says. "I don't think we've ever been somewhere where someone didn't know Dick. I could never do what Dick does, but I admire what he does.

"'You have to do what makes you happy. And whatever that is, I support you,'" he says she tells him.

"The Dick Daniel Distinguished Citizen Award will introduce the people of Northwest Arkansas to individuals who have made a significant contribution to our region," McElroy says. "Rotary wants to celebrate and appreciate the recipients for all they have done to make Northwest Arkansas the great place it is, while sharing the message of Rotary -- which is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and to advance goodwill and peace around the world."

NAN Our Town on 07/21/2016

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