Citizen Of The Year Award
The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce presents two categories of awards each year to deserving citizens of Newport Beach.
The Newport Beach Citizen of the Year Award is presented to that individual who best represents the qualities each of us admire and respect among our friends, neighbors and associates.
It’s not given so much for achievement, as it is for helping others achieve.
It’s not given for outstanding single effort, as much as for long-term, continuing commitment to the community.
It’s not given for position, public or private, as it is for “being there” when there is service called for.
It’s not given so much for being a member, or for paying dues, or for financial contribution, as it is for being the one everybody wants on the Committee when there’s a job to be done.
It’s for the one who says, “Sure – I’ll help – what do we need to do?” And then does it.
And it’s for the one who says, “Newport Beach is my home – and my life – and its future and mine are the same – and whatever I can do to make them better, I will do.
2024 Citizen of the Year
Marie Case
MARIE CASE has been a resident of Newport Beach since 1987 and for many of the years since she arrived, she has participated in a variety of community boards, events and causes.
Her ‘formative years’ instilled a work and ‘give back’ ethic that came from family and a solid education. After college, curiosity about the world took her from the South Bay beaches of her home in Southern California on an extended tour through Europe. A brief return to the homeland in Manhattan Beach after seven months of the ‘European Tour’, she set off for the Rocky Mountains. Her affinity for the beach and the mountains would turn out to be a career path.
Her career began in Aspen, Colorado in the travel industry, developing national and international programs and strategies for resort properties, their restaurants and recreational facilities in the Rocky Mountains, Hawaii and Lake Tahoe.
Jackson Hole, Wyoming was her next stop where she founded an advertising and marketing firm and developed a client list that included hotels and resort properties in Colorado and Wyoming, activewear manufacturers, health clubs and retail stores.
Prior to establishing Case Communications here in Newport Beach, she worked for an advertising agency as an Account Director and Planner. She has managed large multi-million-dollar budgets for multinational companies and implements plans for clients with smaller budgets. She continues to work with clients to develop their brands and grow their businesses.
Marie is past Chair and continues to serve on the Board of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Commodores Club and she was the first woman to serve as Skipper of the Commodores. She has served and contributed to many Chamber and Commodores Committees including the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade Committee.
She has served on the boards of Leadership Tomorrow, the American Advertising Federation District 15 and is past President of the Orange County Advertising Federation. She currently is on the Board of KOCI 101.5 Radio and on committees at Sherman Gardens and the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation.
She still loves the beach and also spends some time in the mountains of Idaho.
Previous Citizen of the Year Award Recipients
2023
Laird Hayes
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2022
David Beek
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2021
Walt Howald
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2020
Joe Stapleton
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2019
Nancy Gardner
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2018
Debbie Snavely
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2017
Homer Bludau
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2016
John and Elizabeth Stahr
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2015
Paul Watkins
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2014
Jack and Nancy Skinner
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2013
Jean Watt
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2012
No Award Given
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2011
Tom Johnson
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2010
Ralph Rodheim
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2009
Norm Loats, Ed.D.
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2008
Lula Halfacre
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2007
Evelyn Hart
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2006
Dennis O’Neil
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2005
Seymour Beek
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2004
Bill Ring
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2003
Scott Paulsen
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2002
Bill Grundy
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2001
Dayna Pettit
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2000
Thomas C. Edwards
1999
Clarence “Bus” Turner
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1998
Marian Bergeson
1997
Rush N. Hill, II
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1995/96
Lucille Kuehn
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1994/95
Michael Stephens
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1993/94
Bob Robins
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1992/93
Art Gronsky
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1991/92
Jim Dale
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1990
Paul Salata
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1989
Bill Hamilton
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1988
Hans Prager
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1987
Bob McCurdy
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1986
Jackie Heather
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1985
Charley Hester
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1984
William D. Lusk
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1983
J. Peter Barrett
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1982
Harry Babbitt
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1981
William P. Ficker
Bill Banning
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1980
Robert Shelton
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1979
T. Duncan Stewart
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1978
Robert Wynn
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1977
Arvo Haapa
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1976
Ray Watson
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1975
Richard “Dick” Stevens
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1974
George Hoag
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1973
Phil Tozer
1972
John Lawson
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1971
John Macnab
Doreen Marshall
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1970
Fred Schope
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1969
A. Vincent Jorgenson
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1968
Judge Robert Gardner
Walter Longmoor
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1967
John Murdy
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1966
Theodore Robins
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1965
Isabel Pease
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1964
Robert Reed
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1963
Dr. Basil H. Peterson
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1962
Paul A. Palmer
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1961
Carroll Beek
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1960
Gerald Lynch
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1959
David Nielsen, M.D.
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1958
William “Bill” Spurgeon
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1957
J.L. “Les” Steffensen
James “Jim” Edwards
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1956
Edward Milum, M.D.
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1955
Joseph A. Beek
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1954
Dora O. Hill
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1953
O.W. “Dick” Richards
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1952
Myford Irvine
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1951
Robert Callis
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1950
Harry Welch
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1949
Robert “Bob” Murphy