Congrats to Woodie Flowers Winner DAVID KELSO!

[Andy Baker]

A few days before we went to Atlanta, Woodie asked for input from the other Woodie Flowers Award winners with regard to who should be the 2004 Championshio WFA winner. We all gave him opinions. Combining those opinions with their thoughts, he and Dr. Murphy focused on Dave as the winner. Then, Woodie asked us our opinions about Dave to verify their choice. Here was my reply:

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Woodie,

The choice of Dave Kelso for the 2004 Woodie Flowers Award is great. He is a extremely deserving cornerstone of the FIRST community. Honestly, Dave is the mentor, father, and husband I want to be when I get to be his age.

To the rest of you who might not know Dave Kelso...

Here are 2 stories about Dave and his team:

In 2001, team 131 attended the Championships in Florida, but did not compete. They spent all of their time volunteering at the Einstein field. "They" included Dave, Nancy Kelso, and about 10 CHAOS (team 131) students. Yes... Dave, his wife, and 10 high school kids were there and did not compete. They volunteered. That was very impressive to me. They even handed out "team awards" to other teams. We got a "Gracious Professionalism" award from them. To me, that is very ironic.

Another story: I was talking with Dave last year in Houston, and asked him how his team was doing. He was frustrated that they had trouble with keeping a sponsor (very familiar to team 27, btw) and his current sponsor could not send any mentors to Houston. I was complaining that I had too many mentors and not enough students on our team. We compared notes, and realized that we had the same number of students, 18, in Houston. However, team 45 had 17 mentors while 131 had 2: Dave and Nancy.

Dave has been in this 11 years. While there may be a few other candidates who convey technical aspects better than Dave, I consider no one more deserving. At least, that is my opinion. Here's to Dave Kelso!

Andy


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Dave,

Congratulations. I want to be like you when I grow up.

Andy Baker