by JEFF SAY
Culpeper Times
The Culpeper Chamber of Commerce named Leon Fincher as the LB Henretty award winner at the annual banquet Nov. 8.
Fincher, the owner of Precision Machine Works, and a member of New Pathways helped create the machinist training school located on the Carver Center campus in Culpeper County.
Standing on Thursday in front of a capacity crowd at Germanna’s Daniel Technology Center, Fincher choked back emotion as he accepted the award named after the man who helped plan Culpeper’s waterways.
“It’s quite an honor,” said Fincher, standing with his wife Dianna. “It’s one I thought I would never see.”
The machinist training school strives to help fill175,000 open skilled jobs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Fincher has been discussing such a school for 25 years, openingly lamenting the lack of laborers for Precision Machine Works. Instead of sulking, he became inspired and worked with county and state leaders to make the school a reality.
Others honored at the 104th annual chamber banquet were Entrepreneur of the Year Russell Furr, Young Professional of the Year Rebecca Ramsey, Small Business of the Year Demolition Services Inc., Large Business of the Year Appleton Campbell, Non-profit of the Year Career Partners Inc. and Agri-Business of the Year Belmont Distillery.
The Chamber also graduated the Lead Culpeper Class of 2018, which included: Kathy Clevenger, Nancy Delaney, Christina Dennis, Sara Drebes, Doris Franczello-Kurtz, John Gengler, Jeff Hetmanski, Dennis Holmes, Tiffany Jeffries Williams, Ginny Koontz, Shari Landry, Sarah Langland, Amy Martin, Morgan Pierce, Jennifer Puffenbarger, Mark Ramsey, Charles Rapp and Pam Won.