When Jean Milstead came to Lawrence from Illinois in 1966 as assistant cashier for Douglas County Bank, she intended to stay in the community for only a year.

Friday night, at the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting, Milstead was honored for nearly two decades of community service in Lawrence.

Milstead became the fifth winner of the Lawrence Athena award, a program that each year honors an area woman who has excelled professionally while also giving back to the community.

“I guess I had really good examples,” Milstead said. “My parents were very active people and from them I just learned the value of helping people. I’ve always enjoyed trying to make a positive difference in someone’s life.”

Milstead retired from Douglas County Bank in January 2000 as a senior vice president. She also has served six years as a Lawrence-Douglas County planning commissioner, was chairwoman of the task force that developed the city and county’s comprehensive guide plan, and was chairwoman of the chamber in 1989.

Milstead said she decided to stay longer than a year in the community because Lawrence reminded her of her home in Illinois.

“The people here were just so nice, and they still are,” Milstead said. “Really it is easy to be involved in a community like Lawrence because there are so many people who deeply care about it.”

Milstead has remained busy with community service since her retirement. She serves on the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center board of directors, the board of trustees of Leadership Lawrence, and the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board.

She is a member of ECO2, a chamber-appointed group seeking to find ways to secure land for industrial development and open space projects. Milstead said she has high hopes for the initiative.

“I’m hoping what we can do with ECO2 is come together more as a community,” Milstead said. “I think people are starting to realize opposing sides in this town still have a lot of similarities. The two sides really can work together to get to where we want to go.”