FARMINGTON – At a special ceremony on June 2 at the Granary Restaurant, the Farmington Rotary Club honored two area citizens, Gary Downs and Everard Cooper. Using a narrative poem style for each winner, Attorney Paul Mills made the presentation after remarks were made by club President Buzz Davis and awards committee Chair Carol Timberlake.

Downs, president and CEO of Franklin Savings Bank for the past 12 years, was awarded the annual Farmington Rotary Club Community Service Entrepreneur Award.

The award is given each year to a person or person who has been successful in expanding a business while making a significant contribution to the local economy and maintaining a level of operation that serves the communities in the bank’s sphere and the employees of the bank.

Under Downs’ leadership, Franklin Savings has grown from $205 to $290 million in assets.

Downs lives in Industry on Clearwater Lake with his wife, Jeanne. They have two daughters, Christine, an engineer for H.E. Callahan, living in Lewiston, and Kathryn, a Portland resident and registered nurse at the Barbara Bush unit at Maine Medical Center.

Veterinarian Everard L. Cooper of Chesterville was presented the Senior Vocational Award for the wisdom and leadership he has shown in his profession through a long-term commitment to the communities he serves.

A native of British Columbia, where he attended college before getting his veterinary degree in Ontario in 1952, Cooper came to Maine to practice. He and his wife, Joan, were married prior to his attending veterinary college, and she has worked with him in his practice for the almost 58 years of their marriage.

First practicing in the Jay-Livermore Falls and Turner areas, which he has continued to serve, he settled on the shore of Norcross Pond in Chesterville. This enabled him maintain a pontoon airplane, which for 20 years he would use whenever a client farm was located near a landing pond.

The Coopers have four children and 14 grandchildren Their son Michael and daughter Susan live in Chesterville; their daughter Marnie lives in North North Carolina and son Henry lives in Bolivia, South America.