Longtime Hopewell Valley Lion lauded by Vigilant Association

For his volunteer work during the 50 years he has lived on Dublin Road, Bill Kibbel has been named 2005 Citizen of the Year

By John Tredrea
key efforts with that group has been as treasurer of its Eye Research Foundation. He’s held post for 10 years.
   During that time, the foundation has raised $500,000 for research on sight problems at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark.
   "Our next goal is to raise $1.5 million for a research chair in that university’s department of ophthalmology by 2008," Mr. Kibbel said Sunday night. "We’ve raised $800,000 of that so far."
   For his work with the Lions and other volunteer efforts during the 50 years he has lived on Dublin Road in Hopewell Township, Mr. Kibbel was named 2005 Citizen of the Year by the Pleasant Valley Vigilant Association at its 133rd annual meeting Nov. 5.
   "I was very appreciative and humbled to receive the award," said Mr. Kibbel. "Unfortunately, volunteerism is fading in some areas. Things have changed. There are two major wage earners in many families. Children’s activities can be very structured. People say they don’t have time to volunteer. It’s too bad. The median age of the members of many volunteer organizations keeps going up."
   Born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1923, Mr. Kibbel and his wife, Anja, have been married 56 years. They have two children and five grandchildren. While a youth in Buffalo, Mr. Kibbel became an Eagle Scout in 1939. After getting a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1944, he served in the Pacific with the U.S. Navy during WW II. He then received his master’s degree in chemical engineering from Case Institute of Engineering in 1948. His 38-year professional career included stints with Buffalo Electro Chemical and other firms. He retired in 1986.
   "Things were different in Buffalo – snow up to your eyeballs," Mr. Kibbel said. "Like a lot of people, my wife and myself feel fond of things as they used to be – but change is inevitable and I think you have to try to accept it as graciously as you can. There’s been a lot of development. When we first moved here, there was no traffic light at the intersection of Delaware Avenue and Route 31. Just a stop sign. Route 1 was a rural concrete highway with a grass divider. We could look west from our house on Dublin Road and see the fireworks in Titusville. Now there are many tall trees and houses obscuring that view."
   There was a long uninterrupted stretch of farmland west of his home when he and his wife first moved here, Mr. Kibbel said.
   "Dublin Road was originally settled by Irish immigrants, many of whom worked digging the Delaware and Raritan Canal, by hand," he said. "They grew potatoes in the fields just west of here. There’s a lot of shale in the ground there, but somehow they were able to grow potatoes out of it."
   In addition to his work with the Lions Eye Foundation, Mr. Kibbel is a past president of the Lions and their current treasurer. He joined the Pleasant Valley Vigilant Association in 1981 and has been its treasurer for 21 years. He and his wife enjoy traveling and have visited every continent except South America and Antarctica. In his free time, he likes photography and working on cars.
   "Bill Kibbel belongs to a special groups of ‘nice to know’ people," said Nick Tuz of the Vigilant Association. "We know him as a friend and upstanding citizen, always soft-spoken. He is both diligent and considerate. In his commitment to serving as a volunteer, he sets a fine example – being both knowledgeable and dependable."
   The Pleasant Valley Vigilant Association (PVVA) was formed in 1872 "for the protection of its members’ property and for the detection and pursuit, apprehension, arrest and prosecution of thieves, tramps, marauders and other deprecators on persons and property and for the recovery of stolen goods."
   This association meets once a year now and recently celebrated 133 years of attention to the above credo at a dinner held at the Pennington Presbyterian Church.