A longtime downtown retailer, a tourism booster and a former Kansas University athletic director were honored Tuesday for their business and leadership achievements.

Joe Flannery, president of Weaver’s Department Store, was named the Lawrence Business Person of the Year at Baker University’s Partners-In-Progress breakfast.

Judy Billings, director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, received the Outstanding Leadership and Achievement in Business Award, and Monte Johnson, a business consultant and former KU athletic director, was honored with the Civic Service Award.

“If you want to know why this is a great place to live, just open the program and look at the list of people who have been honored over the years,” Baker University President Daniel Lambert said Tuesday morning to about 175 people at the Lawrence Holidome. “This group is no exception. It is a pleasure to hold them up as an example of what’s good about this community.”

Joe Flannery

Flannery was honored for his role in preserving Weaver’s Department Store, a downtown Lawrence institution that has been operating for 147 years. Flannery has been an employee at the store for more than 30 years and president of the company for the past 17 years.

“Joe has made a lot of contributions to this community, but the most important has to be his stewardship of Weaver’s Department Store,” said Preston Fambrough, a family friend who introduced Flannery. “The store has evolved and adapted to the business world, but its ambience is still the same and that is remarkable.”

Flannery credited the community for the store’s success.

“I’ve always considered luck to be one of my many blessings,” he said. “It was a lucky day in the 1950s when my parents decided to move to Lawrence.”

From left are Daniel Lambert, Baker University president; Joe Flannery, president of Weaver's Department Store; Monte Johnson, business consultant and former Kansas University athletic director; and Judy Billings, director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau. Lambert on Tuesday presented Flannery with the Business Person of the Year Award, Johnson with the Civic Service Award and Billings with the Outstanding Leadership and Achievement in Business Award. The honors were bestowed during Baker University's Partners-In-Progress awards breakfast.

Judy Billings

Billings was honored for her work during the past 21 years as director of the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau. In that time, the agency’s annual budget has grown to $450,000 from $50,000. She has led projects such as the Sunflower State Games and was key in the selection of Lawrence as the site for the television movie “The Day After.”

Billings said promoting Lawrence was a great job.

“Lawrence has just a wonderful sense of place,” she said.

Monte Johnson

Johnson received a civic award for his work at KU, when he served as athletic director from 1982 to 1987, and for his involvement in the business community through Alvamar Inc. and a family owned oil and gas business. But Johnson said some of his most fulfilling activities involved volunteer work, including fund-raising efforts to rebuild several fraternity and sorority houses and with the Lawrence Humane Society.

“I hope that each one of you realize that in a community like Lawrence, when you have an opportunity to be involved in a project, you should take it,” Johnson said. “That is what makes a community like Lawrence work.”

The Partners-In-Progress awards have been presented annually for more than two decades. Recipients are picked by a selection committee composed of Baker alumni who live and work in Douglas County, and Lambert.