Rotary Club honors woman for service to disabled

In 1998, Atlanta resident Ray Charles Simms was trying to find a job.

Blind from an earlier accident that burned over 60 percent of his body, Simms had been out of work for nine months. His options seemed limited, until he heard about the Tommy Nobis Center in Atlanta, named after the former Atlanta Falcon who founded it. Simms called and was hired before he hung up the phone.

Now known as Nobis Works and now located in Marietta, the center focuses on job training and employment services for people with physical or developmental disabilities. Simms said they helped him immediately.

"I never had the chance to be treated as a stranger," he said. "I've never been treated like anything less than a human being. I never felt like I had a disability. At the center, we don't deal with disabilities. We are interested in what you can do."

Today, Simms helps train new workers at healthcare firm Owens & Minor, which partners with Nobis Works. He said he owes a large portion of his success to longtime Nobis President and CEO Connie Kirk.

"Being a leader is hard," Simms said. "You've got to set an example, and Connie sets a big one. She set one of the greatest examples for us all. So humble. Very intelligent, but so humble and down-to-earth."

Simms was on hand at a Feb. 8 ceremony as the Rotary Club of Buckhead presented Kirk with its Rev. Robert Ross Johnson Humanitarian of the Year Award, its most prestigious honor.

He was among many who gathered in a banquet room at Maggiano's Little Italy in Buckhead to praise Kirk's years of service. As the center's first CEO, she worked for 39 years on behalf of the disabled, helping over 25,000 people find jobs. Kirk retired last year. She is a native of Albany and lives in Marietta with her husband, Dempsey.

"She gets an award every time one of us gets a paycheck or gets hired," Simms said. "I think that's the best award she could ever get."

Kirk was visibly moved by the praise she received, wiping away tears at several points during her acceptance speech.

"It's been a long time since I was growing up in Albany, and I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd be standing up here," she said. "Nobis Works has given me so many opportunities while I've been working there."

She said the center had been a success because of its staff and community support.

"We all know that leaders receive more credit than they deserve," she said. "We know that it takes a whole team with all of their special talents."

She urged those gathered to continue providing that support to new CEO Dave Ward.

The club gives out the award annually in honor of its late member Johnson, a celebrated pastor and humanitarian. Previous winners have included former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Jackson and Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy.