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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Neal Purcell honored by Atlanta Rotary Club
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To his total surprise, Neal Purcell was awarded the Atlanta Rotary Club’s prestigious Ivan Allen Sr. award on Monday.
According to Dick Stormont, this year’s president of the club, is given to the “Rotarian “who has done the most for the club in the past year.”
Purcell, a retired national vice chairman of KPMG and a former Atlanta Rotary president, was on the dias to introduce visiting Rotarians and guests as well as share a couple of jokes.
He clearly had no idea he was about to receive the award named for one of the original founders of the club (and the father of the late Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.) until Stormont began reading off his bio.
Purcell didn’t even notice that his wife, Martha, had slipped into the lunch to see him receive the award. She was shielded by fellow Rotarian George Sands, also a retired KPMG executive, who helped orchestrate the surprise.
When the keynote speaker, Gov. Sonny Perdue, began his talk, he referred to Purcell by saying he had never known that an accountant could be funny.
