Veterans advocate Bob Behm named Central Pinellas Chamber Citizen of the Year

A large crowd turned out for the Central Pinellas Chamber of Commerce’s 73rd annual Meeting and Awards Breakfast, held at the Holiday Inn Harbourside in Indian Rocks Beach on Oct. 2. [ Photos by JEFF ROSENFIELD ]

Chamber honors local businesses and citizens during its 73rd annual awards meeting

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH — Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert “Bob” Behm, who has spent his post-military life helping Pinellas County veterans find housing, food and support, was named the Central Pinellas Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year on Oct. 2.

Behm received the award at the chamber’s 73rd annual Meeting and Awards Breakfast at the Holiday Inn Harbourside. The chamber also recognized several members for their contributions over the past year and named Serenity Funeral Home and Memory Gardens its Business Member of the Year.

“For Bob Behm, service did not end when the uniform came off,” said outgoing chamber chair Mia Cloud, an attorney. “It simply took on a new mission.”

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert “Bob” Behm, who received the Citizen of the Year award from the Central Pinellas Chamber of Commerce, posed with outgoing chamber chair Mia Cloud during the organization’s 73rd annual Meeting and Awards Breakfast, held at the Holiday Inn Harbourside in Indian Rocks Beach on Oct. 2. [ Photo by JEFF ROSENFIELD ]

Cloud said Behm’s mission has focused on veterans facing homelessness, food insecurity, financial hardship or the difficult move into permanent housing. As Veterans Committee chair of Largo Elks Lodge No. 2159, he helped create the Welcome Home Kit program, which provides the essentials to turn an empty residence into a home.

Under Behm, the committee has prepared and delivered home-cooked meals to veterans at Liberty Manor, supported programs that provide clothing and household necessities, and assisted efforts benefiting Bay Pines VA and Pinellas Safe Harbor. Behm also has worked to preserve photographs and military histories for the Largo Elks Veterans Wall, “ensuring that the service and sacrifice of other veterans are remembered for generations to come,” Cloud said.

The Elks National Veterans Service Commission named Behm its 2024-25 Florida Veteran Volunteer of the Year. But Cloud said the truest measure of his leadership is simpler.

“Bob shows up,” she said. “He organizes. He recruits. He raises resources. He builds partnerships. He brings people together. And when a veteran needs help, Bob is there. That is what the Citizen of the Year Award is ultimately about.”

Accepting the award, Behm said in his thick New England accent that he doesn’t do the work alone. He said he spent 42 years in the military, 37 of them in the Army, “and now my role is to take care of the veterans in Pinellas County.”

Besides the Welcome Home Kits, which he said give veterans everything they need to set up their new apartments, Behm’s work includes the food pantry at Bay Pines, the Largo Veterans Committee, three veterans newsletters and serving as the local representative for Wreaths Across America. He said he applies for every grant he can get.

“My wife says if I wasn’t involved with this (stuff), I’d just be sitting on my couch,” he told Tampa Bay Beacons, adding that he enjoys helping fellow veterans.

“Our motto at the Elks is, as long as there are veterans, we will never forget,” he said. “So, that’s what keeps me going.”

Behm said that after leaving the military, he worked in naval logistics for five years in six states. Soon after he moved to Florida, he suffered congestive heart failure and kidney failure.

“I told my wife, if I make it out of this, my life is going to be devoted to veterans,” he said. “And here I am.”

Other honorees

Cloud also presented the chamber’s community awards.

“The strength of a chamber of commerce ultimately comes down to the businesses that believe in its mission,” she said. “Not simply by maintaining a membership, but by participating, investing and stepping forward when their community needs them.”

Cloud called Business Member of the Year Serenity Funeral Home and Memory Gardens of Largo one of the chamber’s legacy members, with a relationship spanning more than five decades. She said chamber records show more than $60,000 in membership, sponsorship, advertising, event participation and other support from Serenity in the past 20 years alone.

She said Serenity’s commitment remains especially strong today through its support of the awards breakfast, the Inspire Awards, networking happy hours and other programs.

“But their contribution goes far beyond financial support,” Cloud said. She cited the business’s hands-on leadership in organizing chamber programs and its willingness to open the grounds of its Indian Rocks Road facility for networking events.

Serenity owner George Feaster, a longtime local funeral director, said the chamber remains vital.

“I’ve been a member of this chamber since 1956, when I attended my first meeting,” he said. “And I’m proud to say that 70 years later it’s still an important part of this community.”

The chamber also named its Ambassador of the Year, Committee Leadership Award winner, Chamber Director of the Year and President’s Award winner, and it presented its first Tourism Member Award. Jake Prokop of Pinellas Technical College, the chamber’s incoming chair, also spoke.