Mr. R. Stephen Best, Sr. has been named Chesapeake 's First Citizen for 2015 by the Chesapeake Rotary Club. The award will be presented to Best at a banquet to ...be held at the Chesapeake Conference Center on Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.
A Deep Creek native, Best devoted 37 years to the Chesapeake Fire Department, rising through the ranks from volunteer firefighter to the top post of Fire Chief and Emergency Services Coordinator, before retiring in 2010. Since that time, Best has served as Program Director for the Hampton Roads Catastrophic Planning Team. Besides his outstanding and innovative government service, Best has contributed countless hours to numerous charitable causes and community service projects in Chesapeake over the course of the past thirty years. An active member and trustee of Deep Creek United Methodist Church, he has also served on the Board of Directors of the South Hampton Roads YMCA. He served as Treasurer of the Chesapeake 50th Anniversary Committee, and was the Charter President of the Chesapeake Unit of the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Virginia. He has been an active Director of the Chesapeake Regional Health Foundation, the Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways History Foundation, the Chesapeake Jubilee, and the Chesapeake Rotary Club. His Rotary service has included being Chairman of Paint Your Heart Out and a member of the Chesapeake Wine Festival organizing committee.
In many ways, Steve Best has contributed greatly to making his hometown of Chesapeake a better place to live and work, and has exemplified the Rotary motto of "service above self".
