25-02-2025
A school champion & a pioneering port leader are Kennewick man, woman of the year
Kevin Veleke, a long-time champion for local schools, and Sue Frost, a philanthropist and pioneering port executive, were honored Monday as the 2024 Kennewick Man and Woman of the Year at a sold-out banquet at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick.
Kennewick Man and Woman of the Year honors civic leaders who live or work in Kennewick for their contributions to the community.
Lawrence Scott, for whom the park was named, was honored as the first Man of the Year in 1946. Blanche Dickinson Pratt, founder of the East Benton County Historical Society, was the first woman, honored in 1948.
The most recent honorees were Brian Ace of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton-Franklin Counties, and Theresa Roosendaal, who created the nonprofit B5 to support immigrants and refugees.
Veleke is an enduring champion for both Kennewick schools and for local veterans, according to organizers.
Veleke was raised in Seattle but spent his career in Kennewick after attending Washington State University. He briefly managed a Western Basketball league, but began working for a local insurance company after it folded.
Nominators said Veleke was the go-to person to take on projects to benefit the community. For eight years, he led citizen campaigns to pass bonds and levies to support the Kennewick School District.
'The bond and levy committee needed someone who could lead a large volunteer organization and who was also willing to knock on doors and raise flags and banners on street corners,' said Kirk Williamson, 2000 Kennewick Man of the Year and organizer of the continuing program.
Veleke continued to support school funding requests long after his formal association ended. Tri-City Herald archives are peppered with letters supporting various school funding requests.
'Good schools are good for communities. A good community is where we want to live,' he wrote in a letter co-signed by his wife, Dianna, in 2023. 'As retired citizens living in Kennewick for over 45 years and having raised our three kids here, we urge all voters within the KSD boundaries to vote Yes, whether you have kids in schools or not.'
He is credited with supporting a broad range of organizations, including sports group. He was credited with wrangling community organizations to repair the Regional Veterans Memorial in Columbia Park when the lighting system failed.
Rotary clubs, city officials, the Army Corps, American Legion and the Pasco branch of Combat Wounded Warriors joined the effort, along with civil engineers and electricians.
When the work was done on both the Regional and Vietnam memorials, he orchestrated re-dedication ceremonies.
'Kevin Veleke is exactly the kind of person who deserves this honor,' nominees wrote.
Sue Frost, formerly Sue Watkins, has worn countless hats since she moved to the Tri-Cities as a teen 1950: Wife, mother, volunteer, farm owner, the country's only female port manager, philanthropist.
She joined the Port of Kennewick in 1976 as an administrative assistant to Art Colby.
She succeeded her boss three years later when he retired, which caught the attention of The Oregonian newspaper, which reported she was 'believed' to be the only woman port manager in the United States.
She was 32.
She was a novelty in a male-dominated industry, but told the Portland newspaper it didn't affect her ability to conduct business.
Still, she observed, 'Every time you open your mouth you have to prove that you can think.'
It was a pivotal time for the port, which had its offices on Clover Island then as it does now.
With Colby's blessing, the island served as a launch point for the countless concrete and other construction vehicles involved with building the iconic cable bridge. Frost bore witness to the project from start to finish.
Mid-construction, she toured the partly built structure. At the bridge's 40th anniversary, praised the civic leaders like Ed Hendler and Art Colby for creating something special, saying she was proud of the skyline-defining bridge.
She would serve as the port's manager until she retired in 1997, Herald archives show.
Before then, she met her future husband, F. Daniel Frost, while taking him on a tour of industrial property for his food processing plan. The California attorney would begin several successful businesses, including Cascade Columbia Foods.
The couple were among Kennewick's most generous philanthropists, supporting any number of causes until his death in 2015 at 93.
Frost was nominated by Marilee Eerkes, a neighbor in the Canyon Lakes area who credited her with quietly identifying community concerns and finding solutions.
In one case, she equipped her property with fire equipment after the 2018 Bofer Canyon fire destroyed and threatened homes in the area. The neighborhood is now much safer, Eerkes wrote.
She is credited with providing scholarships to local students who are the first in their families to attend college, and with being an integral part of the committee that built the Kennewick Boys and Girls Club. She is also interested in Boy Scouts, veterans issues and establishing a recovery center at the former Kennewick General Hospital.
'She doesn't seek acknowledgment, rather she uses her treasures and time to create a positive impact in the community she loves,' Eerkes wrote.
