Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

2016 Humanitarian Award Goes to Hearld Ambler

Hearld Ambler
Submitted Photo
/
BKD, LLP

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks has named Hearld Ambler the Humanitarian Award Recipient for 2016.

Ambler’s community service ties include volunteer for the SeniorAge’s Tax Counseling for the Elderly program. For the past 27 years he’s been helping residents 60 and over prepare their tax returns.

He was nominated by the SeniorAge Area Agency on Aging and the Senior Foundation of the Ozarks, according to a news release by CFO.

“His gentle smile, calming demeanor and ‘wink of assurance’ have comforted confused tax filers, frazzled tax volunteers and over-their-head TCE coordinators,” wrote nominator June Huff. “Because of Hearld, we’ve all been able to say ‘I believe I can do this’ and then proven we can.”

Ambler has also served on the Friends of the Zoo board and the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, where he was one of its 11 founders in 1973. He served the CFO in various volunteer roles for 38 years and established the Hearld and Marge Ambler Scholarship Fund, which offers a preference for accounting majors.

Ambler retired in 1986 from BKD, LLP, where he worked as its first Managing Partner from 1976-1986. He started with the firm in 1948.

Ambler will be honored at a luncheon at noon, Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Doubletree Hotel in Springfield. Tickets for the luncheon are available at 417-864-6199, or lknauer@cfozarks.org or www.cfozarks.org/humanitarian.

The Humanitarian Award was founded in 1990 by Springfield donor Jewell Thompson Schweitzer to honor individuals in our region who excel at serving others in a humanitarian capacity. The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce organizes a committee to review nominations and select the annual recipient.

The winner receives a $5,000 cash award, which has traditionally been donated to one or more charities of the winner’s choice.