Newsmakers: Nov. 4-10, 2019

Banking and Finance
Mid-Missouri Bank hired Casey Pyle as president of its Republic branch. He has 22 years of banking experience and most recently served as BancorpSouth Bank’s senior lender for the Springfield market. Pyle leads a team of 13 lenders, mortgage experts, personal bankers and tellers.

Education
The College of the Ozarks student newscast The Point was honored with five awards for broadcast excellence from the Mid-American Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Two stories, by Taylor Flint and Ethan Harrison, won first place in the Short Form Non-Fiction category, and the entire photojournalism team earned first in the Photography category. The Point also received three honorable mention awards. Junior Savannah Hampton received the Mid-America Walter Cronkite Scholarship. She was one of five recipients awarded for demonstrating the potential to join the media profession.

Hospitality
The Chateau of the Lake Resort, Spa & Convention Center was voted a Best of MidAmerica winner by the readers of Meetings Today Magazine. The selections are based on quality of meeting space; guest rooms; services and amenities; food and beverage service; efficiency and helpfulness of staff; availability of technical equipment and other areas.

Municipal
Gov. Mike Parson awarded Missouri Public Safety Medals to first responders and civilians for heroic actions in 2018. They were Shawn Fields of the Stone County Sheriff’s Office, for saving civilians from a sinking duck boat in July 2018; Marlin Matchett of the Taney County Ambulance District, for attempting to save multiple lives during the duck boat sinking in July 2018; and Daniel Tscherny, Jason Bogema, Tony Fields, Joshua Bravestone, Zachary Keller, Garett Olson, Tyler Nevins and Dustin Matney of the Springfield Fire Department, for recovering the body of a Greene County deputy sheriff who drowned in a flood in September 2018.

Three local professionals were appointed to state boards and commissions: Chris Berndt, of Branson, and Kermit Hargis, of Bolivar, to the Missouri Emergency Response Commission; and Keith Stevens, of Bolivar, to the State Soil and Water Districts Commission. Berndt is the fire chief of the Western Taney County Fire District and emergency management director of the Taney County Office of Emergency Management. Hargis serves part time as the Polk County Health Department emergency planner and adjunct instructor at Southwest Baptist University. Stevens is a sales and quality control manager for Ash Grove Aggregates Inc.

Nonprofit
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield received the 21st Century Grant for five years of funding for the club at Fremont Elementary School. The $821,751 grant is authorized under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and covers programming for K-6 students.

The Kitchen Inc. hired Tim Minkler as veteran case manager for its Home at Last program. He is a retired veteran from the U.S. Air Force currently pursuing a master of divinity with an emphasis on Biblical counseling. Home at Last is offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs to serve veterans and their families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Retail
Russell Cellular Inc. was recognized by Entrepreneur magazine in its Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America Entrepreneur 360 rankings. The company ranked No. 157 out of 360 based on an analysis of 50-plus data points organized into five areas: revenue and customers, management efficiency, innovation, financial evaluation and business valuation.