To those who know Dick Bere best, the retired Kroger CEO is more than a leader. He is a “dynamo” whose energy and spirit influences everyone he meets.

        “I've never met a man like him,” said Shannon Carter, president and chief executive officer of Crayons 2 Computers (C2C), a free store for teachers in Bond Hill.

        “He has changed the whole scope of this program. We wouldn't be where we are without him. ... His resources and his dedication — all of it — made a difference.”

Dick Bere is being honored for his volunteer work for Crayons 2 Computers, which donates goods to teachers. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        On Thursday, Mr. Bere will be presented with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation's Jacob E. Davis Volunteer Leadership Award, which recognizes someone who has helped to make Greater Cincinnati a better place.

        Mr. Bere's voluntary contributions to C2C helped earn the program a Presidential Volunteer Service Award in June, the highest service honor in the country. It snagged him local kudos as well.

        Winners of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation award receive a $10,000 grant, which is donated to the nonprofit of their choice.

        Mr. Bere has opted to give the money to C2C.

        “It's very humbling,” he said. “There are so many other people who deserve this. I've always been heavily involved in (corporate) organizations, but it's the friendships you make (through volunteering) that mean the most.”

        C2C is a 3-year-old organization that uses dona tions from private companies and individuals to ease the financial burdens facing school districts.

        Steve Gibbs is president and chief executive officer of the FreeStore/FoodBank, where Mr. Bere has also volunteered. He said Mr. Bere's dedication is admirable and the acknowledgement is well-deserved.

        “His character and honesty are so overwhelming,” Mr. Gibbs said.

        Born in New Carlisle, Ohio, Mr. Bere grew up on a farm, where he was no stranger to hard work.

        In Columbus in 1957, the then-26-year-old Bere took a job at a local Kroger grocery as a carry-out boy/trainee while studying at Ohio State University.

        He eventually got his doctorate and worked his way up through the grocery chain, working 25 years in the produce division before landing in Cincinnati, where he was appointed president and chief operating officer in 1990.

        “What he has done is admirable and has positively influenced me and the rest of my family,” said his daughter, Staci McLauchlan of Columbia Tusculum. “He's the hardest-working person I know.”

        Mr. Bere said he has no plans to slow down. “Not until I'm 95,” he said.

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