Meet the Finalists for the Dan K. Richardson Award
Alma Lee Loy won it, the red-haired Vero girl who sold war bonds as a child and grew up to greet the whole town with a “hello darlin’.” Bud Adams won it, with a St. Lucie County ranch his father bought for $1.50 an acre and a breed of cattle he invented himself. Bob and Marygrace Sexton won it for Natalie’s juice, a century after the Sextons started building Vero. Bob’s grandfather Waldo Sexton arrived before Vero was even a town, planted citrus, put up the Driftwood Inn and the Ocean Grill, and with his partner Arthur McKee turned 80 acres into McKee Jungle Gardens.
On Thursday, November 5, one of four newly announced finalists will join them when the Indian River State College Foundation names its Dan K. Richardson Entrepreneur of the Year over dinner.
For one evening, some 200 of the people who build, run and back businesses across the Treasure Coast will unite under the same roof with the four finalists at their tables and nobody sure whose name is about to be called.
And for the first time in the event’s history, a student shares the spotlight. The Foundation has teamed up with IRSC’s School of Business on a Rising Leader Award, so one of the region’s up-and-comers will be honored alongside its established names. The evening’s proceeds go to IRSC Foundation scholarships and student success programs. It starts at 6 p.m. on the Massey Campus, and your seat awaits you here.
Before you go, meet the finalists:
Corey Clive served in the military, played football for the Navy and then for the Coast Guard, earned a degree in statistics, and spent years in construction, land development and energy at Fortune 500 companies. In 2009 he started Venergy Group, a service-disabled veteran-owned business, with a plan to cut the energy bills of government agencies and private companies, helping their sustainability efforts while hiring fellow veterans. The firm now holds federal, state and local contracts, and he mentors other veterans and small-business owners.
David Carson has been founding companies for three decades, among them Envision Product Development Group, Vascular Simulations and now CareGlider. He has had a hand in more than 100 products and 40 patents for healthcare, aerospace, defense and the consumer market. CareGlider’s patented device gives people with limited mobility more independence and spares their caregivers the strain and injuries that come with the job.
Robert Gluckman is an attorney who has spent two decades building healthcare companies where he saw the Treasure Coast going without. He opened one of the region’s first urgent care clinics, added Treasure Coast Psychiatry to widen access to mental health care, and started Employee Wellness, whose programs help employers keep their workers healthier and their costs down. He also runs Live Hearty, and he is a steady supporter of local nonprofits and veterans.
William David Snyder is a veteran and the owner and CEO of Evergreen Private Care, a company offering concierge-level home care. He has grown it from its Treasure Coast roots into a leading provider serving more than 20 Florida counties. He built the company on dignity and compassion for its clients, along with continuing education and career growth for the caregivers who do the work. He also sits on numerous boards and advocates for veterans, seniors and wider access to healthcare.
The Dan K. Richardson Prize takes its name from the man who arrived in 1946, joined Gracewood Fruit when it had four employees and 160 acres of trees, and spent the next 60 years making the name synonymous with Indian River citrus. While he was at it, Dan Richardson chaired the school board through desegregation, started a scholarship fund with a single $500 award and wrote the first check to the college’s foundation. So when the college created an entrepreneur’s prize in 2000, it put his name on it and handed him the first one.
The winners since have come from a variety of industries from every corner of the Treasure Coast, and last year the trophy went west to Okeechobee with Gil Culbreth. The pioneer spirit lives on in this region, and the prize exists to keep that habit alive in all four counties the college serves. The college itself has grown to more than 24,000 students, half of them the first in their families to go, and it has started producing winners of its own. Bill Marine took an associate degree there, built the country’s largest farm irrigation contractor, sold it and retired at 32, and in 2024 the prize was his.
Come see who joins them. Seats and tables for the November 5 dinner are available here, so bring a guest, or bring the whole office.
