Kingsport Chamber honors Dennis Phillips and Pal Barger with distinguished Lifetime Member Awards
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – The Kingsport Chamber honored former Kingsport Mayor Dennis Phillips and longtime Kingsport business leader and philanthropist Pal Barger with its prestigious Lifetime Member Awards during the inaugural State of Your Kingsport Chamber Holiday Breakfast Friday morning at the MeadowView Marriott Conference Resort & Convention Center.
The event was sponsored by Appalachian Power, Brown, Edwards & Company, Citizens Bank, City of Kingsport, Eastman, Hamlett-Dobson Funeral Homes, Holston Valley Medical Center, Indian Path Medical Center and The Regional Eye Center.
Phillips is the award’s twenty-eighth recipient while Barger is the twenty-ninth honoree.
Phillips recently retired as Kingsport mayor, having served for ten consecutive years in that role.
He’s also the founder and former owner of Chef’s Pizzeria, Express Signs and DRP Rentals.
Barger is the founder and chairman of Pal’s Sudden Service and the former owner of Skoby’sand the Olde West Dinner Theatre.
Both gentlemen have been tremendously supportive and involved in the Kingsport community for years.
Phillips and Barger will also be recognized at the Kingsport Chamber 69th Annual Dinner on Friday, February 5, 2016, at 6 p.m. at the MeadowView Marriott.
Tickets for that event will go on sale in January.
“It is with enormous thanks and heartfelt appreciation that we honor Dennis Phillips and Pal Barger with your Kingsport Chamber’s Lifetime Member Awards,” said Isaac Webb, 2015 Kingsport Chamber chair and district manager with Appalachian Power. “Dennis and Pal have been very successful business leaders and both have set the bar incredibly high when it comes to being a true community leader. They are most certainly deserving of this illustrious honor and it’s very appropriate that two such dear friends receive the accolade in the same year.”
“Dennis Phillips and Pal Barger, it doesn’t get much better than that,” said Miles Burdine, Kingsport Chamber president and CEO. “Both are giants of men and legendary leaders. In so many ways and for so many years, both have given selfishly of their time and resources and have made a significant and lasting impact on this community. We are most grateful for all that they have done and so happy we can recognize them with this honor.”
The Kingsport Chamber Lifetime Member Award goes to an individual who has made an enormous contribution to the Kingsport Chamber and the community throughout his or her lifetime.
With the award, Phillips and Barger receive complimentary memberships to their Kingsport Chamber for life.
Dennis Phillips
A native of Burnsville, N.C., Phillips attended the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin and Memphis State University.
He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 to 1967.
In 1967, he moved to Kingsport and joined Western and Southern Life Insurance. One year later, he joined Kingsport National Bank. He then went to Bank of Tennessee where he would work his way up from loan officer to vice president and then president and CEO.
In 1987, he was appointed commissioner of banking for the state of Tennessee by Governor Ned McWherter.
Upon his return to Kingsport in 1990, Phillips started Chef’s Pizzeria. In 1992, he created Express Signs and DRP Rentals. All three are still thriving downtown businesses.
Phillips was elected mayor of Kingsport in 2005 by more than 60 percent of the vote. He would go on to serve five consecutive two-year terms, retiring in 2015.
During his tenure as Kingsport’s top-elected official, Kingsport enjoyed tremendous growth and development.
Thanks to Phillips’ leadership, Kingsport created the Academic Village, which consists of five buildings offering four-year and advanced degrees, in addition to numerous training certifications and classes.
Nearly 3,000 students now attend class in downtown Kingsport and the number of residents with a college degree has increased from 18 percent in 1999 to 32 percent in 2015.
The median family income has also increased from $30,000 to $53,000 during the same timeframe.
For its superb efforts to promote and enhance higher education initiatives in the community, Kingsport garnered the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
The Kingsport Center for Higher Education is named for Phillips and former Kingsport city manager John Campbell.
During Phillips time as mayor, Kingsport also opened the Kingsport Aquatic Center, built Brickyard Park, renovated and expanded Dobyns-Bennett High School’s J. Fred Johnson Stadium, expanded the MeadowView Marriott Conference Resort & Convention Center, extended the Greeenbelt, renovated Bays Mountain Planetarium, redeveloped the former Quebecor site into a thriving business district, supported the renaissance of downtown, promoted the growth and expansion of several industries and companies, and attracted numerous new businesses, stores and restaurants to town, among many other developments.
Phillips has also served and continues to support a number of local non-profit organizations and supports a number of charities.
He has also received numerous awards and accolades for his leadership and generosity.
Phillips and his wife, Bobbie, have one son, James, and a daughter-in-law, Crystal.
Pal Barger
A native of Kingsport, Pal Barger is a graduate of Dobyns-Bennett High School. He holds a business degree from East Tennessee State University.
While a student at Dobyns-Bennett, Barger worked as a carhop at Skoby’s, the barbecue drive-in his parents opened in 1946.
Though he had no intention of following in their footsteps, he later became fascinated with the concept of a hamburger restaurant he frequently visited while stationed in Texas with the U.S. Air Force.
Barger opened his first Pal’s Sudden Service on Revere Street in Kingsport in 1956. A second and third Pal’s opened in Kingsport during the next three years.
Barger also built and operated the Olde West Dinner Theatre for 13 years.
After his father passed away in 1971, Barger assumed the management of Skoby’s.
Barger currently owns and operates 28 Pal’s Sudden Service restaurants in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
Pal’s Sudden Service became the first restaurant to receive the Tennessee Quality Excellence Award and the first to garner the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for excellence in operation and service.
Barger has been very active in the Tri-Cities region for many years, having served in various leadership positions on a number of local boards and organizations and being a huge philanthropist to a number of community endeavors and causes.
Barger donated the money to build the new score board at J. Fred Johnson Stadium, the Pal Barger Regional Center for Automotive Programs at Northeast State in the Kingsport Academic Village and the Pal’s Roundhouse for the Kingsport Carousel. He was also a huge contributor and supporter for the Dobyns-Bennett High School Field House.
He has received numerous accolades for his community service and charitable contributions.
Barger received the Kingsport Times-News Award for Distinguished Community Service. He was named East Tennessee State University’s Outstanding Alumnus in 2001. In 2003, he was the recipient of the Junior Achievement of Tri-Cities TN/VA Business Hall of Fame Laureate Award.
Barger was also inducted into the Tennessee Restaurant Association’s Hall of Fame.
Barger and his company also continue to support the United Way of Greater Kingsport, the Santa Train scholarship fund, several student organizations, ETSU Pride Week, among others.
He and his wife, Sharon, have a son, Rick Barger; daughter and son-in-law, Chris Barger and Mike Morrison; daughter and son-in-law, Christy and John Stout; grandson, Landon Pratt; grandson and wife, Jonathon and Tiffany Pratt; two granddaughters, Lottie and Zoe Stout; and a great granddaughter, Emma Pratt.
Other Kingsport Chamber Lifetime Member recipients include Wallace Alley, William C. Bovender,John W. Andersen, Sam H. Anderson, Jr., E. B. Blankenbeckler, Jeanette D. Blazier, Frank B. Brewer, Frank Brogden, A.B. Coleman, Betty W. DeVinney, John Douglas, William D. Dudney, C.B. “Boots” Duke, IV, Eleanor Eason, Rodney D. Irvin, Farris Jackson, J. Lane Latimer III, Dr. William W. Locke, G. Payne Marshall, Ken Maness, Ron McMasters, Bob Miller, Charles Edward Moore, Mike O. O’Neill, James P. Rogers, Darrell Rice and Keith D. Wilson.
KINGSPORT CHAMBER
The Kingsport Chamber is a private, non-profit business organization composed of nearly 1,000 members. The Kingsport Chamber’s mission is to utilize resources and focus efforts on enhancing a strong and viable business environment for the Kingsport area.
Programs of the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce include: Communications & Development; Education & Workforce Development; Downtown Concert Series; Fun Fest; Government Relations; Keep Kingsport Beautiful; Kingsport ChamberZone; Kingsport Convention & Visitors Bureau (KCVB); Kingsport Leadership Programs (ENCORE, Leadership Kingsport and S.H.O.U.T.!®); Kingsport Office of Small Business Development & Entrepreneurship (KOSBE); Membership; Move to Kingsport; Santa Train; and Tennessee/Virginia Scholars.
For more information on the Kingsport Chamber, go to KingsportChamber.org or call (423) 392-8800. We’re social too; follow us on our Facebook page, Your Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce, and on our Twitter account, @kptchamber.
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