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The Daily Tar Heel

Chamber of Commerce to honor 12 local business leaders

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce will honor 12 local business leaders and their families this year in its inaugural Hall of Fame. The Daily Tar Heel will feature each of the honorees in the weeks leading up to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

In honor of its 50th birthday, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce will induct 12 business leaders into its inaugural Hall of Fame in November.

Aaron Nelson, the president and CEO of the chamber, said the group wanted to find a way to honor the businessmen and women who had shaped the community in some way.

Some of the honorees are being inducted posthumously, Nelson said.

The chamber will honor its inaugural class of honorees at a ceremony on Nov. 13 at The Carolina Inn, according to a press release.

The first class of the Chamber’s Hall of Fame:

  • Stein, Bill and Jesse Basnight Sr. of S.H. Basnight & Sons Inc.
  • Michael Barefoot of Southern Season
  • Mildred Council of Mama Dip’s
  • Orville Campbell of The Chapel Hill News
  • Ted and Edward Danziger, Restauranteurs
  • Mickey Ewell of Chapel Hill Restaurant Group
  • R.B. and Jenny Fitch of Fitch Creations
  • Mac Fitch of Fitch Lumber and Hardware
  • Jim Heavner of WCHL
  • George Watts Hill Sr. of Central Carolina Bank
  • Frank Kenan of Kenan Oil and Kenan Transport
  • Mel Rashkis of Mel Rashkis & Associates
  • Peter Thompkins, a member of the chamber’s Hall of Fame selection committee, said committee members were assigned to write research papers on each of the candidates for the Hall of Fame.

The inductees were eventually chosen for their management styles and their impact on the Chapel Hill community, the press release said.

Thompkins, an advertising manager for The (Raleigh) News & Observer, said it was fun for the committee to learn all the history behind so many Chapel Hill businesses.

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“The business community here is very tight-knit,” Thompkins said. “And oftentimes it extends over multiple generations.”