Sam Chaffin to Receive The Marie Award

Mr. Sam Chaffin

Mr. Sam Chaffin

A ceremony will be held on October 1st to honor Sam Chaffin as a recipient of The Marie Award 2013.  The event will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Darragh Center of the Main Library in the Central Arkansas Libraries in Little Rock.

Sam is a native of Magnolia, AR, where he was a Boy Scout and member of the First Baptist Church. From the University of Arkansas, he graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering and a MS in Industrial Engineering, from the University of Arkansas, which he uses today as a Logistics and Management Consultant. Sam is a Registered Professional Engineer, a Professional Certified in Material Handling and Materials Management. He started Eagle Material Handling of Arkansas, Action Material Handling, and Action Erectors, all of which he was President. He now serves as a Senior Associate for Dunavant Global Logistics in Memphis, TN, does logistics and management consulting. His career in real estate development will end when he sells his last lot in Hurricane Lake Estates in Benton.

Sam became a Rotarian in January 1975. In Club 99, the Rotary Club of Little Rock, he served as a Director, Chairman – Group Study Exchange, President, and Vice-President, initiated the Golden Committee – an advisory committee of Past Club Presidents, the Strategic Planning Committee, and the philosophy of planning in three year blocks with the President, President-Elect, and President-Nominee. He has served as a Director for the Club 99 Foundation and was Rotarian of the years 1993 and 2005-06.  In Rotary District 6150 Leadership, Sam served as Chair for Group Study Exchange multiple years, District Rotarian of the Year in 1996-7, Assistant Governor multiple years, as Rotary D6150 District Governor -2003-04, District Rotary Foundation Chair, 2006-09, and District 6150 Rx Drug Take Back Chair 2010-13.

Sam is a multiple Rotary Paul Harris Fellow, a PHF Sustaining Member, and benefactor of the Rotary Foundation Permanent Fund.  He led a Rotary Club of LR Task Force to use $50,000 of Rotary Foundation funds and $500,000 of Bush-Clinton Katrina funds to rebuild 38 homes on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain after Hurricane Katrina.  Sam has chaired the D6150 Rx Drug Take back projects since 2010. This became a statewide project involving all three Rotary districts in Arkansas in 2012.  Sam continues to sponsor Rotary Foundation projects to provide safe drinking water, toilets and showers to refugee children in Northern Thailand. This follows three projects to provide safe drinking water and animals for poverty families in South Vietnam and Northern Thailand with Heifer International as partner. He recently visited a Rotary Club of Little Rock project in Johannesburg, South Africa, to visit potential projects.

Sam’s other past services include: Past President, Little Rock Sales and Marketing Executives Association, Past President, Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering, Salvation Army Board, Boy Scouts of America, Greater Little Rock Small Business Council Chair, Advisory Board at UALR College of Mechanical and Manufacturing Technology and UALR College of Business. Director, Advisory Board,- ASBTDC- Arkansas Small Business & Technology Development Center.

Sam now lives in Benton, AR, and is married to Charlie Cole Chaffin, former Arkansas State Senator and retired Chemistry Teacher, ASMAS. They have three children: Cole Chaffin of North Little Rock, Patty Chaffin (Rotarian, deceased 2005 from breast cancer) of Little Rock, and Marty Maier of Searcy, and five grandchildren.

His hobbies include quail hunting, fishing, traveling, and snorkeling and diving.

About the Award The Marie Interfaith Civic Leadership Award (aka The Marie Award) was named for Marie Spitzberg.  Her own personal role in interfaith understanding and civic activity established the standard for evaluating lifetime accomplishment.  The award recognizes outstanding Arkansans who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of the public interest by word, action, and example through interfaith engagement and civic service over a number of years. www.themarie.org/award.html

Release date: Tuesday, September 18, 2013