Matagorda County turf grass farmer Arthur Milberger received the 2021 Bay City Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture’s Man of the Year award and Patsy Anderson was the 2021 Woman of the Year.
In addition, the banquet honored:
- Bay City Educator of the Year Mrs. Carol Elkins of Bay City Junior High.
- BCISD Student of the Year Savanna Fernandez
- Tidehaven teacher of the year was Gary Jones.
- Tidehaven student of the year Kinsley Simons
- Van Vleck Educator of the Year Michael Polachek
- Van Vleck student of the Year Kerrigan Keating
- Matagorda ISD Teacher of the Year
- Halli McKee
- Matagorda Area Chamber Business of the Year was given to Matagorda Harbor Bait & Tackle - Mark, Kelly and Taylor Holland.
- Sargent Person of the Year Jessica Graham of the Sargent Community.
This year’s chamber board chair Amanda Sitka also was MC for the banquet.
She called on County Judge Nate McDonald - man of the year in 2014 - to introduce Milberger.
Milberger was born in Bay City, and graduated from Bay City High School and married a Bay City girl, said County Judge Nate McDonald, who was man of the year in 2014.
He started his college career at Texas A&M University and ended up at the University of Texas at Austin, earning his Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in the Business Honors Program in 1972.
“In college, our Man of the year was a walk-on with the Aggie football team, and at the University of Texas was a collegiate wrestler,” McDonald remarked.
Milberger started a successful business in San Antonio in 1972 with his new bride, Sue.
He worked hard to grow a new business, while attending law school at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, where he earned a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1974.
Milberger’s first business has grown and today is one of San Antonio’s largest and most popular retail centers, McDonald said.
After finishing law school and passing the bar in 1975, he to Matagorda County.
Milberger was elected and served as a Bay City school board member with and was a director for the Holy Cross School.
He joined his father as his family literally pioneered the turfgrass industry in Matagorda County, McDonald said.
He became partner of the family turf farm from 1976-1998 and has built an empire from his Bay City turfgrass roots.
Other than his turfgrass operations in Texas, Milberger established farms in Mexico and Malaysia and two unconventional sod farms on an Indian reservation in Arizona and a prison farm in California.
Milberger was appointed by Governor George W. Bush to the LCRA Board of Directors and served from 1998 to 2004.
Milberger and his family were the owners of the property where both TenarisBayCity and Schulman’s Movie Bowl Grille currently operate. Both properties were in use as farmland, and neither were for sale.
Milberger saw the great benefit both projects would have on our county by creating jobs and getting people to work, McDonald said.
He himself negotiated the deal between his family and TenarisBayCity and subsequently, also helped to bring Schulman’s Movie Bowl Grille to Bay City. Without Milberger, neither deal would be in Matagorda County today, McDonald added.
“Both projects have had immeasurable impact to the economic development of Matagorda County,” the judge noted.
Today, he is working for Bay City and Matagorda County with a partnership with the Bold Fox Development group, “to bring much needed housing to our community.”
Arthur and Sue Milberger established the Sequor Foundation in 1996.
They serve as president and vice president of the foundation.
Among other things, the Sequor Foundation funded the Texas A&M Endowed Chair for Children at Risk in the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department under the College of Agriculture.
He also is a trustee of the George A. Robinson IV Foundation and is the past president and board member of several turf growers associations.
He is currently partnering with the Scotts Company to grow ProVista Foundation Stock, the new Roundup Tolerant St. Augustine Grass.
In his spare time, he spends time at the Live Oak Ranch where he and his partner, Lindsey Thompson, run a cow/calf operation.
“Our Man of the Year believes his greatest roles in life have been husband for over 49 years to his wife Sue; father to his three beautiful daughters and their husbands and grandfather to Audrey, James Arthur, Cole, Eric, Wyatt and Reid.”
The 2020 woman of the year Tiffany Foltyn introduced Anderson.
Anderson was born in 1929 in Houston, and attended school in Richmond.
She married a Bay City boy and moved to Bay City in 1952.
She remembers him telling her, it was a nice place to live and raise a family, Foltyn said.
Since he was from Bay City, he warned her “It’s a small town, so don’t talk about anybody, because your either talking about their kinfolks or mine!”
“She always thought that was funny and now, as she looked back over the years, she realizes how true his input really was, and she thinks it is still true today.”
Anderson always loved to sew - she was a professional seamstress/dressmaker for 25 years after the kids all started school and she also made dance costumes for Dorothy Ramsey Dance Studio classes for several years.
Anderson was a neighborhood chairman for the Girl Scouts Association, and during her years, the Girl Scouts served over 300 girls.
She made sure she supported her children and the community and served as a Bay City Girls Softball league coach for over seven years.
Anderson has always loved to bowl, Foltyn told the banquet audience.
“She bowled for 30 years. She completed in many tournaments all over the state. She once bowled in the Nationals finals at Reno, Nev.
Anderson ran a day care /nursery in her home for many years when her kids were young.
She also is a lifelong member of the First United Methodist Church.
She has a passion for collecting Santa Clauses – her huge collection has close to 400 or 500, Foltyn pointed out.
“Our Woman of the year was a visionary, she saw the importance of growth for our community,” Foltyn said of Anderson.
She was a member of the Chamber of Commerce Nuclear Advocate Committee, which was essential in bringing a nuclear power plant to Matagorda County.
A trailblazer, Anderson belonged to the chamber Ambassador, one of the chamber’s most important committees, Foltyn said.
A member of the Texas Association of Realtors since 1976, she was an elected member of the Texas Association of Realtors Legislation Committee in 1980 and served for nine years.
Our recipient earned her real estate license in 1976, and two years later earned her broker license.
She started her own real estate business in 1978 and has run the day-to-day operations for over 44 years. “Our woman of the year continues to operate the business today, although a bit slower, she is still working selling real estate,” Foltyn said.
Anderson helped bring housing to the area during the nuclear plant construction boom years.
She worked with five builders developing subdivisions south of town - both for the construction crews and the permanent employees.
She was president of the Matagorda County Board of Realtors in 1980.
Community service is important to Anderson, who served on the Crime Stoppers Board for 18 Years.
“Everywhere she goes, someone recognizes her,” Foltyn said.
“Some will tell her that she sold them a house, or they were a young girl when she volunteered with the Girl Scouts,” Foltyn said.
“They may tell her they remember her as their softball coach. It seems like everyone knows our woman of the year.”
Bay City Educator of the Year, Carol Elkins of Bay City Junior High, has taught for 17 years and her current math class for six, said Grant McGalliard, BCISD’s director of communications.
He said Elkins holds a Masters’ degree from Columbia University and has represented Bay City ISD at several conventions, including the Avid Summer Institute in 2019.
Before coming to BCISD, she started a pilot program in New York City to allow a student population made up primarily of female heads of households with dependent children to earn their GEDs, McGalliard said.
“You can see the same level of compassion and care in her behavioral system that she helped develop for her grade level, which prioritizes cohesiveness of staff, encourages restorative practices, and ensures student accountability.
“In everything she does, this educator brings excellence and empathy,” McGalliard said.
BCISD Student of the Year Savanna Fernandez plays varsity volleyball and runs varsity cross country, where she qualified to the region meet, McGalliard pointed out.
Fernandez also served as the cheer co-captain this year
President of HOSA, WIT, and National Honor Society, she also serves as the NTHS secretary.
A leader of the Crunk Squad and a member of student council and the ECO Club, Fernandez volunteers at nursing homes, libraries, EMS services, and the women’s crisis center.
“Schoolwork can be difficult. But spending that extra time and building that integrity will make you independent, success will gravitate to you,” McGalliard said.
Van Vleck Educator of the Year Michael Polachek was born and raised in Bay City and graduated from BCHS in 2005.
Completing his teaching degree from UTSA in 2010, Polachek said he loves working with kids and working for Van Vleck ISD.
Polachek is both a teacher and coach at Van Vleck Junior High. He is dedicated to creating a positive learning environment and making a difference in student lives in the classroom and on the field,” said Christie Dement, assistant superintendent of Van Vleck ISD.
Matagorda ISD Teacher of the Year Halli McKee was born to an Irish father and an American mother and grew up in Ireland, until moving to Bay City in the eighth grade, said Matagorda ISD Superintendent Barbara Marchbanks.
She is a graduate of Bay City High School and the University of Houston, where she studied creative writing and literary studies.
In 2010 after a six month stay in Ireland, she returned to Bay City and began working at Spoonbills Restaurant and Matagorda I.S.D, Marchbanks said.
In 2011 she became a long-term sub for 3rd – 5th language arts and then took charge of the Matagorda School Library, which served both the school and the community of Matagorda.
In 2019 she moved from the library to the classroom and began teaching. She has taught language arts, 5th-8th grade for three years as well as a year of social studies and two years of art.
“In her opinion the best thing about teaching is the daily interaction with students. She loves to see students get excited about learning and in turn hopefully learn to view reading as a gift and not a chore.”
Mark Holland talked about Matagorda Harbor Bait & Tackle’s choice as Matagorda Area Chamber Business of the Year.
“With the unfortunate drownings and near drownings at Matagorda Beach that occurred in the summer of 2021, Matagorda Tackle Shop, with the help of good friend Gary Janise, we started a loaner life jacket program which is available to everyone who visits Matagorda,” said Holland.
“If a person or family is either down for the week or weekend and needs a life jacket, they can stop by the tackle shop and grab as many as needed free of charge,” he added.
Kandas Graham presented the Sargent Area Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year to Jessica Graham.
Graham was raised in Matagorda County by a family of volunteers and givers, Graham said.
“She gives and does without hesitation. Her brain and heart are constantly running in circles of how-to better things, not for her, but for the community,” Graham added.
“I always know everything is going to be ok when she is involved.”
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