Joan Golden, left, a friend of Deanell Tacha, right, announces Tacha as the winner of the Citizen of the Years Award on Friday at Liberty Hall. The award is from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and recognizes a lifetime of commitment to the community. Tacha is a judge for the 10th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Vickie Randel, center, senior vice president for commercial lending and business development for First State Bank and Trust in Lawrence, receives the Athena Award on Friday from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. The Athena Award is given annually to a woman who has excelled professionally and strives to reach the highest levels of professional achievement.

Everyone, it seems, has a Deanell Tacha story.

Cathy Lewis remembers being urged by the U.S. Appeals Court judge to “leave a legacy.” Joan Golden marvels at her friend’s ability to bring people with diverse opinions to consensus on important issues.

And Shirley Martin-Smith relies on the woman she considers “the matriarch of Lawrence leadership” for strategies on approaching complicated community efforts (and that means Tacha can expect a call about homeless issues any day now).

“If you want something done, or you want some input, you go see Deanell,” said Martin-Smith, a business owner and former Lawrence mayor who now chairs the city’s Community Commission on Homelessness. “On anything, whether it’s from issues with the arts to what’s good for neighborhoods – anything – she has a good, well-balanced way of looking at the community.”

No wonder she’s winner of the Citizen of the Years Award from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

Tacha received the award, which recognizes a lifetime of commitment to the community, during the chamber’s annual meeting Friday night. More than 350 chamber members and guests gathered for presentations at Liberty Hall and a reception afterward at the Eldridge Hotel.

Also during the meeting, Vickie Randel, senior vice president for commercial lending and business development for First State Bank and Trust in Lawrence, received the Athena Award, which is given annually to a woman who has excelled professionally and strives to reach the highest levels of professional achievement.

“It’s important to have mentors,” said Randel, who credited her early bosses Bob Georgeson and Lynn Anderson for encouraging her into a successful banking career. “I feel like it’s still hard for women to achieve in business, and I’m happy to have the opportunity to help out with that.”

Tacha, a judge for the 10th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, said that being recognized by the chamber – and, by extension, people throughout the community who work day in and day out to make Lawrence a better place – qualified as the “highest honor I could ever receive.”

“To have had the opportunity to work on causes in this community that I love, and have great passion for, it’s been wonderful,” she said, between a steady stream of hugs, smiles and congratulations in the lobby at Liberty Hall.

Tacha has been active in a variety of community issues, among them the recent conversion of the chamber’s own Convention and Visitors Bureau into Destination Management Inc., a separate operation now tasked with managing a new Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area.

She’s also a leader in efforts supporting The Shelter, the Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence Memorial Hospital and other agencies and programs.

All this while tending to judicial business that carries an impact well beyond Lawrence, the state and even the nation.

“Most people don’t realize what a world-class figure Deanell is,” said John Lungstrum, a U.S. district judge who has known Tacha for 40 years, including time when they served together on the faculty of Kansas University’s law school.

That Tacha continues to invest her considerable energy and expertise in local causes, Lungstrum said, certainly qualifies his friend as a Citizen of the Years.

“She is a very rare person,” he said.