By Greg Paeth
NKyTribune contributor
Colette Ridge admitted that when she first heard from Covington Business Council executive director Pat Frew that Paul Daugherty had been proposed as the keynote speaker for the organization’s annual dinner, her first question was, “Who’s that?”
Ridge, who chaired the dinner committee, and about 350 other people found out Thursday night.
The Enquirer sports columnist for the last 21 years is far more than baseball and football and the athletes who make millions of dollars a year playing games that children attempt at recess.
Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty was the keynote speaker at the Covington Business Council 2015 Annual Dinner. (Photos courtesy of Rudy Harris)
He also made it clear that he can be a pretty good dad to daughter Jillian, who was born 25 years ago with Down syndrome, which created challenges that she seems to have coped with successfully.
“She’s the best human being I know, and sometimes I wonder who’s got the syndrome,” said Daugherty, whose remarks revolved around the importance of collaboration.
Collaboration that, in one form, can elevate the City of Cincinnati and its neighbors in Northern Kentucky or in another, help raise a child with special needs.
“It takes a village,” Daugherty said. “I know that now. Jillian has taught me that. It’s one of the million things that Jillian has taught me,” he said as he glanced down at the table where Jillian and her husband Ryan Mavriplis were seated.
Daugherty also had plenty of good things to say about Northern Kentucky University, where Jillian attended college and became a manager for the men’s basketball team when the head coach was Dave Bezold, who was fired by the university in March after 11 seasons.
When he wrote about Bezold’s dismissal, Daugherty let readers know that he had very personal feelings about the coach and how he had helped Jillian.
“Five years ago, Bezold asked Jillian the Magnificent to become a manager for his team. It was a life-changing event for my daughter. She gained an identity through Coach Bez and his players, almost all of whom were entirely generous in spirit, when it came to their relationships with Jillian,” Daugherty wrote in what he described as a “disclaimer.”
Guy Van Rooyen, president of the Salyers Group, received the Covington Business Council’s Founder Award at the organization’s annual dinner.
“Bez & Co. reinforced in Jillian a solid work ethic, and a larger sense of what it means to be a team. Because of Dave and Kevin Schappell and Danny Boehmker and Dante Jackson and Alicia Lawrence and Paul Schwarber and many, many others, Jillian now knows what it’s like to be an accepted member of society. Thanks to them, she is truly a citizen of the world, in good standing…the best of everything to Dave Bezold and his staff. All they meant to my daughter was the world. I hope they know that.”
Jillian also spoke briefly Thursday at the annual event that was held at The Grand in Covington. She urged those in attendance to read her dad’s latest book, “An Uncomplicated Life,” which is described as “a father’s memoir of his exceptional daughter.”
Copies of the book were included in the ticket price for the biggest fundraiser of the year for the business council.
The organization’s Founder Award was presented to board member Guy Van Rooyen, the president of the Salyers Group, which is developing the $21.5 million Hotel Covington at the corner of Seventh and Madison. Van Rooyen also emphasized the importance of collaboration in his speech and vowed to make the hotel project a success.
“If I don’t do what I said I would do (with the hotel project), I’ll return the award in a couple of years,” Van Rooyen said with a smile.
Greg Paeth is a member of the board of the Urban Partnership, which works with the Covington Business Council on projects designed to benefit the city.
