NEWS

Chamber honors Emmons as Coshoctonian Award winner

Joe Williams
Reporter

COSHOCTON – Barb Emmons said she was "overwhelmed and puzzled" Friday night when she learned she had been named this year's Coshoctonian Award winner during the Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner at Lake Park Pavilion.

Emmons, who retired in December 2013 as director of Health Services and Hospice of Coshocton, said she has loved her career in nursing and health care and considers it an honor to have helped families through her work. Many people toil for years at jobs they do not really enjoy, she said, "and for me to get to do for 28 years something I feel I was put on this earth to do, think how awesome that is."

Working with people at the end of their lives has never been depressing, Emmons said.

"You drop your facades," she said. "You see the real people, and you see families really, really caring for loved ones."

Emmons said she attended Friday's Chamber dinner, as she had in previous years, and had no idea she would be honored this year. Nor did she know her son Josh and his family had traveled from Chicago and were waiting out of sight to share in her special moment. They had spent part of the day hiding out with Emmons' daughter, Amanda, who lives in Coshocton, to keep the award secret until its formal announcement Friday night.

Nominators described Emmons as "a gifted visionary, a mentor, innovative, an awesome nurse, resilient, a positive role model in the community, a pioneer in health care, and absolutely dedicated to Coshocton."

Emmons said she does not know who nominated her, but thanks her friends for their kind words, because they did not mention "how opinionated I am, how I love to get my own way, and I love to win."

A native of Tallmadge, Ohio, near Akron, Emmons moved to Coshocton in 1980 with her first husband, Dr. Richard Emmons, and Josh and Amanda. The doctor began practicing medicine that year at Family Physicians. When he died in 1985 of a brain tumor, many people thought his wife would return to her hometown, but she opted to stay here.

"I tell people Coshocton is just amazing," she said.

Although the family knew no one when they moved here, residents embraced them "and stood by us in very dark times," Emmons said.

After her husband's death, she joined other like-minded people in bringing the concept of hospice care to Coshocton and held many different positions in the agency's early years.

"I just wanted to repay this community because they were really there for us during that time," she said.

Before coming to Coshocton, Emmons had worked as a nurse in Cleveland while her husband attended medical school. She had earned her nursing degree from Mount Sinai Nursing School in Clevelend and a degree in psychology from St. Joseph College in Maine.

Married to Steve Miller, of Coshocton, since 1999, she has served as president, recording secretary and foundation chair of the Coshocton Rotary Club, and currently serves on the Coshocton County Library Board and as a trusteee of the Coshocton Foundation.

jwilliams6@coshoctontribune.com

740-295-3417

Annual Chamber Dinner Award recipients

Small Business of the Year Award: Mission Auto Connection

Young Leader of the Year: Danielle Erwin-Ellis

Employee of the Year: Jim Baylor, of Miller Funeral Home

Coshoctonian: Barb Emmons

Source: Amy Stockdale, executive director of the Coshocton County Chamber of Commerce