The Rotary Club of Gainesville honored a local champion of environmental education and preservation and a longtime leader in business and health care during its annual banquet Monday, June 21. 
The organization named Andrea Timpone as its Woman of the Year and Rob Fowler as its Man of the Year. 
Timpone recently retired from her role as CEO and president of Elachee Nature Science Center. She started at Elachee more than three decades ago as its first staff member, when the nonprofit didn’t have a building, just the Ed Dodd Trial. In 1988 she shifted into the executive director position. 

Timpone has been involved in many initiatives that have helped maintain the 1,440-acre Chicopee Woods Nature Preserve and boundaries of the Chicopee Woods Area Park Conservation Easement, in South Hall. Timpone and others personally carved out the 8-mile hiking trail system in Chicopee Woods, which is open to the public daily.
Last summer she received the 2020 Leadership Award for her “exceptional commitment and contributions to the nature center as a whole and her invaluable leadership at Elachee.” This national honor is presented once a year by the Association of Nature Center Administrators.
Rob Fowler is a partner and works as CEO of Turner Wood & Smith Insurance in Gainesville. He serves on 13 local service and commercial organization boards in various capacities, and was instrumental in the community-wide initiative, WeArehALLin, according to a press release from the Rotary Club.

During the banquet, Fowler also received the organization’s Guardian of Ethics Award, a district Rotary award that is given to a Rotarian who “has made outstanding contributions that foster the development of ethics.”
The Rotary Club presented two other awards to local community servants. The W. Lee Arrendale Vocational Excellence Award was given to Darla Eden, Hall County tax commissioner. Kevin Wetzel of Memorial Park Funeral Home was honored with the Sidney O. Smith Fellowship Award.