THERE were celebrations today in several Huddersfield households.
Eleven local people were included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
They included Kirklees Council chief executive Rob Vincent, cultural leader Marcia Hutchinson and University of the Third Age official Ted Duggan, 80, of Linthwaite.
There is also a Queen’s Police Medal for police sergeant John McFadzean.
Rob Vincent, 58, hit the headlines last week when he was “head hunted” by the Government to move from Kirklees Council, where he has been chief executive for five years, to take over as head of troubled Doncaster Council.
The father of four from Bolster Moor has worked for Kirklees for 23 years and now receives the CBE.
He said: “I am absolutely delighted to be recognised in this way. The honour is a testament to the strength of Kirklees and its influence on the national scene.
“It is not about any individual, it is about what has been achieved during the period that many people have been involved and it is about the impact we have as a council.”
Another to receive the CBE is Peter Murray, of Holmfirth.
Mr Murray is the founder and executive director of the world-renowned Yorkshire Sculpture Park at Bretton. He has been honoured for services to the arts.
Ted Duggan, 80, of Linthwaite, was “surprised but delighted” by his award of an MBE.
Mr Duggan has spent a lifetime working in education, teaching electrical engineering to thousands of students across the UK and the world.
He has arranged many courses for adult education students and since his retirement in 1989 has worked tirelessly for the University of the Third Age in Huddersfield.
Mr Duggan, who is married to Dorothy, has two children and four grandchildren.
John Carr, formerly of The Nook, Holmfirth, has been honoured with an OBE.
He is a very regular visitor to the Holmfirth and Huddersfield area where his family still run “The Nook”, one of the Holme Valley’s famous hostelries. John attended St Gregory’s Grammar School, now All Saints, at Bradley Bar, and also Huddersfield Technical College before going to study at the London School of Economics.
He is a Senior Expert Adviser to the United Nations and sits on the Executive Board of the British Government’s Council for Child Internet Safety.
Fixby’s Marcia Hutchinson has got the MBE for her services to cultural diversity.
She set up an organisation called Primary Colours in 1997 when her daughter Olivia, then aged three, said she wanted to have “white skin and not brown skin”.
The group creates teaching programmes for schools and theatre groups.
Mrs Hutchinson said: “I’m over the moon. I cried when I opened the letter, after initially thinking it might be a tax demand.
“It’s great for my family and for the organisation, and sort of validates what we have been doing”.
Former Birkby businessman and ex-chairman of Sunderland Football Club Bob Murray is knighted in the awards.
Mr Murray, who received the CBE in 2002, was co-founder of kitchen and bathroom manufacturer Spring Ram.
He lived at Birkby for eight years and at Gomersal for six years before that.
He resigned from Spring Ram in 1999 after helping steer the company from its origins in 1979 in a Sowerby Bridge mill to a £50m factory at Birstall.
In 1992, he joined four other senior Spring Ram executives in a new home improvements company called Omega.
Mr Murray resigned as chairman at Sunderland in 2006 after 20 years in charge.
A Brighouse foster couple have both been honoured with the MBE.
Robert and Pamela Noden have spent years working as foster parents for Bradford City Council and have looked after hundreds of children and young people.
Sgt McFadzean, of Honley, is 54 and has been a policeman for 34 years and has received the Queen’s Police Medal.
He has spent most of his career in Huddersfield but has had spells in Leeds and Calderdale, and with major inquiry teams.
He now works as Kirklees Licensing Officer and as a sergeant with the town-centre policing team.
Married to Jayne, he has two children Katherine and William. He said: “I’m absolutely delighted”.
An MBE has also gone to Mrs Jennifer Elizabeth Thorpe, of Heckmondwike, who works for the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
