Paul Harris is the founder of the Rotary Club – when he and a few colleagues first met in Chicago in 1905. The Paul Harris Fellow recognition acknowledges people who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. The local club made that contribution in honor of Rick Brough’s legacy reporting career.
Rotarian Bob Richer introduced Rick as the reporter who has been one of the voices of Park City for nearly four decades. Rick also produced the annual reports of the Rotary Club’s Citizen of the Year awards for KPCW for decades. Rick himself was named as the Rotary Club’s Professional Citizen of the Year in 1995.
“It's a great honor and a privilege to have just known Rick and been a part of it. Thank you very much for all that you've done for the community. It's greatly appreciated by me and the entire Rotary Club,” Richer said.
Rotary Foundation Chairman Hamilton Easter presented the award to Rick, including an award certificate and pin.
“In 1957, Rotary International established the Paul Harris Fellow award to recognize significant contributions of individuals. The Park City Rotary Club would like to give to you in recognition of your contribution to the community, a Paul Harris fellow award," Easter said.
Rotary president Ryan Dickey says the Rotary Club bestows the Paul Harris awards on worthy community members.
“Rick is such an incredible member of this community for what he's done for KPCW, and obviously everyone knows the distinctive voice," Dickey said. "And I have to say truly, when I became a planning commissioner, I don't really get star struck, but I would say I was star struck upon meeting Rick Brough. And I saw him I didn't know that that was Rick Brough. And he came up and asked me if I wanted to be on the radio that week, and it was I've been on planning commission for about a month, so the answer was definitely no, I did not want to be on the radio that week. But I was like, oh my god, this is Rick Brough. And it was it was so cool. He's so fair and captures the essence of these long, arduous meetings in these three minute news stories. It's incredible. He's just an incredible guy.”
Rick made a few comments to club members – and with one of his legacies his iconic signoff of “For KPCW News, I’m ...Rick… Brough,” he explained how sometimes – just time - can make something iconic...
“If you’ve been to Sugarhouse, I'm sure most of you remember the location of the Snelgrove’s ice cream store and the ice cream factory that was next door and those buildings are now gone for many years but the community has retained a large plaster ice cream cone as you can see on 21st South and I am inspired by that," Brough said, "because it proves that you can start out with something goofy and if you keep it around long enough, it will become iconic.”
After 35 years at KPCW, Rick Brough retired last month.