RAPID CITY - Saturday's Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce banquet and annual meeting will be the last one Jim McKeon will attend as the organization's president and chief executive officer.
McKeon announced this week that he will retire Nov. 30. He has headed the Rapid City business group since 1995.
"Jim is an inspirational leader who has helped to create one of the finest chamber organizations in the country," Kitty Kinsman, chairman of the chamber board, said. "During his 12-year tenure, McKeon has positioned the chamber as a catalyst in advancing several projects and initiatives designed to enhance Rapid City and the entire Black Hills region."
Highlights of his tenure include:
* Organizing Frontiers-Forging Our Future during the mid-1990s to build a road map for the future of the Black Hills.
* Advocating for construction of the Heartland Expressway as an integral part of the Great Plains International Trade Corridor, linking the Black Hills to Mexico and Canada. The South Dakota portion of the project is on track to be completed in 2011.
* Creating the Black Hills Air Service Task Force to expand and improve air service at Rapid City Regional Airport.
* Co-founding Black Hills Vision, a technology-based economic development project to expand the regional economy.
* Leading the Ellsworth Task Force to ensure that Ellsworth Air Force Base remained a viable military installation during both the 1995 and 2005 Base Closure and Realignment rounds.
McKeon said his proudest accomplishments include helping to open the lines of communication throughout the region and earning a 5-Star Accreditation rating from the U.S. Chamber - which puts the Rapid City chamber among the top 24 chambers in the nation.
He also said he is gratified that he could "work and grow with a great chamber staff and hundreds of great community volunteers."
Past board chairman John Carlson has been appointed to lead the executive search committee to find a new chief executive for the chamber.
"It will be hard to replace Jim, but we view his retirement as an opportunity to evaluate our progress and continue to build our great leadership team for Rapid City's future," Carlson said. He said the Executive Search Committee will begin its work immediately to plan for an orderly leadership succession.
For McKeon, the chamber of commerce was a second career. The Philadelphia transplant served more than 27 years in the U.S. Air Force. He served at posts throughout the world, and his last three Air Force years were at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
Col. McKeon was commander of 99th Wing and chief of staff at the Warfare Center at Ellsworth. He retired in 1992 and decided to stay in South Dakota. He was head of the Pierre Area Chamber of Commerce for three years before returning to Rapid City to take the chamber job here.
