FRIDAY January 1, 2010 125th year No. 1 www.hpe.com High Point, N.C. 50 Cents Daily $1 Sundays
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PRICE is right!
WHO’S NEWS
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‘Miracle’ worker is chosen Citizen of the Year 2009 WILLIAM E. PRICE JR.
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BY TOM BLOUNT EDITOR
HIGH POINT – What’s a typical morning like for a High Point businessman who has been selected The High Point Enterprise Citizen of the Year for 2009? • A 11⁄2-hour meeting to get the necessary amount of money and other things together to send a youth football team to a tournament in Florida. • Spending much of another hour participating in a focus group discussing the real estate situation in High Point. • Heading off to a school in High Point for another hour of visiting with students. You don’t have to observe Ed Price for long before you begin to wonder into which he has put most of his energy and resources – his vocation since 1973 or his avocation since he was an early teenager. That’s because most of Price’s waking hours are split between helping others, especially young people, and running a highly successful local real estate “conglomerate.” “Ed Price has an enormous capacity for caring,” William A. “Bill” Horney, 1984 HPE Citizen of the Year declared. “He is fun to work with – sometimes unpredictable – but that is Ed. He is a great human being who makes things happen. I love him.” David S. Miller, 1997 CofY, praises Price for “his commitment to helping the oppressed, especially children who are dealing with challenging personal issues. He has helped countless kids to participate in athletic and school-related activities by the generous gifts of his time and resources.” Tonia Stephenson, executive director, Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club, points out that Price “came to the advisory board through Ray McAllister with so much energy, enthusiasm and passion for helping kids.” When she told Price the club was trying to rebuild its baseball program, Stephenson says, he “took the leadership role to secure a grant from the High Point
SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
Ed Price accepts the 2005 High Point Human Relations Commision Humanitarian of the Year award.
AWARDS
----High Point Jaycees, Distinguished Service Award; WFMY-TV, personality of the week; High Point Youth Council, Outstanding Adult Volunteer; YWCA Volunteer of the Year; WGHP-TV Citizen of the Year; High Point College Friends of Youth Award; High Point Public Schools Dean B. Pruette Award; Salva-
tion Army Outstanding Youth Volunteer of the Year; Archdale Jaycees DSA Award; United Way Community Hero Award; High Point Chamber of Commerce Small Business Advocate of the Year Award; High Point Fellowship of Christian Athletes Citizen of the Year; Ed Price Baseball Field at High Point Athletic Com-
plex named in his honor; United Way Power of You Award; High Point Human Relations Commission Humanitarian of the Year; The Business Journal Fast Fifty Award; The High Point Enterprise Readers Choice Awards, Best Realty Company, Best Realtor; High Point Community Foundation Spirit of the Foundation Award.
PERSONAL Age: 60, lifetime resident of High Point. Family: Wife, Teri; daughters, Holly PriceCreech and Katie; son, Will. Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Wake Forest University; High Point Central High School. Occupation: President of Ed Price and Associates, REALTORS Inc.; Price Commercial Properties Inc.; Hinkle, Price, Cole Property Management Inc., 2001-present. Organizations, activities: (current) member of Westchester Baptist Church; serves on the Board of The Carl Chavis YMCA; Boys and Girls Club; High Point Community Foundation; Guilford County Kids Vote; Guilford County Parks and Recreation Commission; High Point Parks and Recreation Board of Directors; Piedmont Triad Airport Authority; annual High Point Martin Luther King Jr. parade; Leslie’s House; The Miracle Field; High Point Parks & Recreation Department annual Easter egg hunt; supporter, Montlieu Elementary Math & Science School; supporter, His Laboring Few annual Thanksgiving dinner; supporter, His Laboring Few annual Christmas dinner. Avocation: Coaching, sponsoring, advocating for youth sports; helping others.
Burlington Mayor Ronnie Wall recently was named by Gov. Beverly Perdue to the N.C. Board of Transportation. Wall works as assistant superintendent for auxiliary services in the AlamanceBurlington School System. He is a member of the executive committee at Piedmont Triad Council of Governments.
INSIDE
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LET IT ROLL: Bowling party celebrates smoking ban. 1B OBITUARIES
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Robert Bates, 79 Louise Fagan, 93 Faye Godfrey, 87 Betty Gordon, 70 Peggy Hulin, 81 Carolyn Leonard, 71 Willie Little, 60 Linda McMahan, 59 Vera Payne, 95 Barry Thomas, 52 Obituaries, 2B
WEATHER
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Inside...
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Helping others begins at an early age. 2A A milkshake keeps him happy. 2A
Partly cloudy High 45, Low 22
6C
INDEX Community Foundation and to work with (those involved with) the baseball programs at Macedonia (Baseball Association) and Carl Chavis Y to provide maintenance and expansion of inner-city leagues,
especially for the T-ball and Coaches-Pitch programs for kids 4-to-8 years old.” “Ed not only gave the effort direction but he also went about raising money to make it happen ... The
man is a true blessing for us.” Former Mayor Arnold J. Koonce Jr., the 2008 CofY, notes, “Early on, Ed chose to help young people improve their lives. He has done (it) in the relentless
pursuit of youth facilities, programs and benefits for kids.” “In the 35 years I’ve known Ed, I never noticed an interruption in his love for High Point, his
MIRACLE, 2A
Max Meeks to sign off one last time BY PAT KIMBROUGH ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Max Meeks said he wanted to take part in a New Year’s Day tradition one more time before ending his legendary 52-year career in radio. Meeks initially decided to retire at the end of 2009, but later reconsidered, opting to rise at 3:30 a.m. one last time to break a bit of news to his listeners – the winner of The High Point Enterprise Citizen of the Year. “One of the things I’ve always enjoyed doing on New Year’s Day is being able to announce Citizen of the Year, so I called my boss
back and said, ‘I’d like to work one more day,’ ” Meeks said. He got his wish today, signing off from his “Max in the Morning” radio Meeks show on WMFR-AM in High Point for the final time. Meeks, 84, started at the station in 1947 and has been there for most of the intervening years, save for a stint in the furniture business in the 1950s and 1960s. Meeks said his 5:30 to 9 a.m. show “basically hasn’t changed in all that time. It’s been pretty much the same thing.” His listeners
came to appreciate staples of the program like the daily birthday announcements and the hymn of the day. Guests also were a regular feature. “We usually have someone just about every morning,” Meeks said. He brought on members of the medical profession to discuss items of interest in health and well being. The first and third Thursdays of the month included a regular feature by the Roy B. Culler Jr. Senior Center in High Point on topics of interest to older residents. The High Point Area Arts Council also was featured in a monthly segment on the show. The program was a throwback in
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR NEWSPAPER.
a day and age when radio has become dominated by shock jocks and political talk shows. Meeks said he enjoyed the contact radio gave him with people, the support of good causes and “having a unique communication with my listeners.” “I think the main thing is the communication with people. Radio is just a real people business – it is to me – and one of the things I’ll miss is the opportunity to communicate with a lot of these people and just to be a part of a lot of things that are going on in the community and to try to be an influence for good,” he said. pkimbrough@hpe.com | 888-3531
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