AUGUSTA — Le Club Calumet has named Charles “Wick” Johnson as its 2016 Outstanding Citizen.

Johnson, former owner and current president of Kennebec Technologies and a leader of efforts to raise money to help expand and renovate Lithgow Public Library, is the 40th recipient of the award.

The Augusta-based Franco-American club established the award in 1965 to honor someone who is not Franco-American who has made significant contributions to the community.

In 1984 Johnson, then chief operating officer at Kennebec Tool and Die, bought the company and, three years later, moved it from Windsor into a 10,000-square-foot facility on Church Hill Road in Augusta. The facility has since expanded to 20,000 square feet. In 2009, the company name changed to Kennebec Technologies. And in January this year, Johnson initiated an employee stock ownership plan at the company, effectively making the firm’s 65 employees the owners of the company.

In 2001 the company received the Award for Business Excellence from then-Gov. Angus King, and in 2002 Johnson was named the Small Business Person of the Year for Maine by the U.S. Small Business Administration. In 2010 he was named the Business Person of the Year by the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Johnson has been a member of the University of Maine System Board of Trustees, is a member and past chairman of the Augusta Board of Trade and is vice chairman of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. He also has been on the New England Hemophilia Association board of directors, chairman of the Invested Funds Committee of the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Augusta, a founding member of the Center for Technology and first president of the Maine Science and Technology Foundation, according to a news release from Gerard Lapierre, president of Le Club Calumet.

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Johnson is co-chairman of the Friends of Lithgow Library fundraising campaign, which brought in about $2.3 million to help pay for the Lithgow Public Library expansion and renovation.

He and his wife, Ruth, live in Augusta and, between them, have five daughters.

Johnson is scheduled to receive the award at a May 14 ceremony at Le Club Calumet.

Tickets may be obtained by calling Norman Veilleux at 441-1062 by May 2. Tickets will not be sold at the door.


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