Joel Hopper was posthumously honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Celebration of Leadership Awards in Evansville Wednesday night.
Hopper was one of three Lifetime Achievement winners in the ceremony put on by the Evansville organization, Leadership Everyone. The group seeks to develop leaders in communities, and honored 38 winners from across the region. Hopper was one of three people from the region given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony.
Hendersonian Dawn Kelsey, who’s both the city attorney and the vice president of the Henderson Leadership Initiative, spoke about Hopper’s influence in Henderson.
Kelsey said she prepared a statement, but during her speech, she went off topic. The Hendersonian received her prepared speech and mentions some of those comments from that here.
She wrote that what made Hopper “truly special was how personally he invested in people.”
“Joel was a proud Henderson native who built an extraordinary business career, helping grow what became Brenntag Mid-South into a major company,” she wrote. “But Joel never measured success only by business accomplishments. What mattered most to him was Henderson — the community and the people in it that he loved and believed in deeply.
“Joel served this community in countless ways: through the Henderson Leadership Initiative, economic development efforts, the Riverport Authority, BridgeLink, Chamber, and the Community Foundation of Henderson. He also founded the Men’s Bourbon Society, which has raised thousands dollars for charitable work in our community.
“Joel believed that if you saw a need, you gathered the right people and got to work.”
There were 138 nominees, and honors were given in the following categories: Arts; Community & Neighborhood; Education; Government, Public Service & Environment; and Health & Social Services, along with several additional special awards.
Hopper died in June 2025.
Not only was Hopper honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously, a 2026 graduating group of the HLI has created a give-back day in his honor: the Joel Hopper Day of Service, which will be April 24.
