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by Robb Fulcher
Dick McCurdy and Yvonne Amarillas have been named man and woman of the year by the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, officials announced on Monday.
The awards, which will be presented at the chamber's annual installation luncheon Oct. 27, represent a pair of family traditions. The honorees' spouses, Catherine McCurdy and Paul Amarillas, were the chamber's man and woman of the year in 1998.
"It took me completely by surprise," said a surprised-looking Dick McCurdy.
"When you do community service you just do it because you want to, and it becomes part of you. You don't really think about it," he said.
"I was totally caught off guard," said a surprised-sounding Yvonne Amarillas. "I am very flattered and honored."
McCurdy and Amarillas, as well as their spouses, are very active in the Kiwanis, a point McCurdy insisted upon publicizing, in hopes that he can avoid the brunt of the service group's playful fines for his mention in the newspaper.
McCurdy
moved to Hermosa in 1986 and began pitching in with the Hermosa Parent Teacher
Organization and Fiesta Hermosa. He joined the Kiwanis in 1989, and founded
a "lending library" of baby furniture for needy families.
He served as Kiwanis president in 1992-93, and treasurer in 1998-99.
McCurdy served six terms as president of the local Sister City Association, which, during his tenure, reinstated a student exchange program and hosted the first national convention of the US/Mexico Sister City Association.
In 1998 he was elected to the board of the Hermosa Beach Community Center Foundation, which has restored funding for the Hermosa Beach Playhouse.
McCurdy is CEO of the GlassWerks Division of the Los Angeles-based corporation United Glass, and is an active member of St. Cross by the Sea Episcopal Church.
Amarillas
has been a regular member and a board member of the Women's Club of Hermosa
Beach since the mid-1980s. She founded the "Evening Division" of the club and
has served as its chairperson twice, in 1987-88 and again for 2000-01.
She heads a division of the club, the "Evening Angels," which provides anonymous support to needy families.
Amarillas serves on the board of the Hermosa Beach Community Center Foundation, and has served on its fund-raising committee, helping to drum up money for the playhouse and its sound system.
She has served on the board of directors and the executive committee of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce, and has volunteered her services to Fiesta Hermosa for numerous years.
The chamber luncheon, 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 27 at Ein Stein's Restaurant, 1301 Manhattan Ave. at Pier Avenue, will also feature the reinstallation of President Mike Ludwig, who begins a third term after the board voted to remove a two-term limit from the bylaws.
Also installed will be new board members Fred Hahn of Patrick Molloy's, Janice Webb of Cal Fed Bank and John Workman, the city treasurer of Hermosa Beach. Nineteen existing board members will be reinstalled to continue their service.
McCurdy and Amarillas become the chamber's 33rd man and woman of the year. Last year's honorees were David L. Garrett and Jean Lombardo.
Garrett, 62, owner of Garrett Construction, was cited for his exhaustive volunteer work, much of it with St. Cross Episcopal Church.
Among many other efforts, Garrett poured the concrete for the Veterans Memorial at the civic center, and took part in the Pete Tucker-led restoration of the historic Vetter Windmill that soon will turn above the Greenwood Park strip along Pacific Coast Highway at Aviation Boulevard.
Lombardo also was praised for her exhaustive volunteer work.
She has served for four years as president of the Hermosa Beach Women's Club, and is responsible for publicity for Hermosa Beach Friends of the Library. She also serves on the board of the Community Center Foundation and takes charge of VIP hospitality during the SilverSand film Festival. ER