Area family holds place of distinction; Trio earns community service awards

A Poplar Bluff family of pharmacists have the distinction of individually receiving a community service honor, the Bowl of Hygeia Award.

Each of the trio — Martin Michel, David Farris and Ken Michel — has received the honor.

Martin Michel, owner of Key Drugs, received the 2020 Bowl of Hygeia Community Service Award. His brother, David Farris captured the prize in 2017. Their father, Ken Michel, started the family tradition when he received the award in 2014.

Established in 1958, the Bowl of Hygeia Award recognizes pharmacists who have outstanding records of civic leadership in their communities and encourage pharmacists to take active roles in their communities.

“The award has always been one of the most prestigious awards given to a pharmacist,” Martin Michel said. “The award was established for the people who possess outstanding civic leadership in our communities, and how pharmacists are so active in a community.”

He said, “That’s why they give out one award per year per state. So there are 50 awards, given out every year. It’s almost like a fraternity of people that have actually won the award and it’s a close-knit group recognized throughout the country, if you become to be a Bowl of Hygeia winner.”

What’s unique is three people from their family have received the award. They don’t know of any other families from other states ever getting the award, but certainly would be unusual, he said.

“It is unique. Our dad set a good example for us and we really enjoy pharmacy,” Martin Michel said. “The great thing about pharmacy is that we’re able to touch a lot of people’s lives. Mainly because we’re the most accessible health care profession there is. You can easily walk into the pharmacy and speak to the pharmacist. So that’s why we did it.”

Martin Michel was on a committee when members of the police department reached out about a legal, over-the-counter substance that was being found on playgrounds in the area.

The items looked like prescription medicines and contained ephedrine, or something similar.

“So they thought it’d be best that the community just asked the stores if they would voluntarily remove them, and they did,” he said. “They voluntarily removed them from the shelves. Kids can misconstrue them as prescription medicine.”

After working to keep the drugs away from children, Martin Michel received the award for his community service in Poplar Bluff. In 1994, he was named Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in recognition of his prevention of illegal drugs. He was president of the Butler County Health Department for eight years, president and treasurer of the SEMO Pharmacy Association, president of the Missouri Board of Pharmacy, and president of the Missouri Pharmacy Association.

Presently, he is a pharmacy clinical instructor for pharmacy schools.

Farris earned the award in 2017for his service as a mentor for the Claudia Company reading program, work with a grade school park league and serving as an AAU basketball coach. He is a permanent deacon of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

Farris explained he enjoyed doing community activities.

“I went to seminary for five years and became a deacon,” he said. “I call on the sick and enjoy working with the people and in the church today. I’m still doing that. So I’m still doing both. That plus the plus pharmacy.”

Farris started working at the pharmacy in 1964 when he a sophomore. After graduating high school, he went into the Navy for four years before going to pharmacy school.

While in pharmacy school he met his wife, Mary, who also is a pharmacist. Her brother Michael is a pharmacist.

Farris worked at Key Drugs until he and his wife had their own pharmacy, Northtown Drugs, for 31 or 32 years. After more than three decades they sold their pharmacy and returned to Key Drugs.

“Speaking for all of us, we love the people in Poplar Bluff. We have made a good living here and love serving them. We’ll do it until we just can’t do it anymore.” Farris said.

Ken Michel captured the honor in 2014. He served as president of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce, and with the Poplar Bluff Housing Authority, Poplar Bluff Rotary and Zion Lutheran Church.

He is treasurer of the Butler County Health Department Board of Trustees.

While chamber president in 1972, Ken Michel initiated action to keep the Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E station located in Poplar Bluff and was involved when the city received the All-America City Award.

The Hygeia Award is presented annually by participating state pharmacy associations, including those in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In addition to service through their local, state and national pharmacy associations, award recipients devote their time, talent and resources to a wide variety of causes and community service.

The program was first conceived of and initiated by E. Claiborne Robins Sr., a pharmacist and then-president of A.H. Robins Company. Robins’s fierce dedication to community service was the driving force behind the inspiration for the award, according to the organization. Today, the Bowl of Hygeia is the most widely recognized international symbol for the pharmacy profession and considered one of the profession’s most prestigious awards, they reported. The bowl represents a medicinal potion and the snake represents healing.

Over the years, a number of corporations have supported the continuation of this program, including Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer, Inc. In 2010, Pfizer transferred all rights and responsibilities of the award to the pharmacy profession, to be managed by a cooperative of pharmacy organizations: the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA), and the APhA Foundation.