Junior Achievement of South Central Kentucky Business Hall of Fame laureates Fred Higgins (right) and Joe Natcher admire the new display at the Knicely Conference Center during Thursday’s Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours.

Joe Natcher and Fred Higgins, both past inductees into the Junior Achievement of South Central Kentucky Business Hall of Fame, perused the hall of fame display Thursday at Knicely Conference Center as if they were seeing it for the first time.

In a way, they were.

The display, which started at Sloan Convention Center and was moved to the Knicely Center three years ago, has been reborn. The fresh display of the 30 men and women in the hall of fame, with photos digitally enhanced and all images placed in identical black frames, was the showpiece of Thursday’s Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours.

For a static exhibit, the photos were positively kinetic.

“It’s first-class,” said Lowell Guthrie, the former Trace Die Cast CEO and a past hall of fame inductee. “It shows that the community values what these people stood for.”

Rick Wilson, area president for BB&T Bank, was also among the admirers of the upgraded display.

“We’re the presenting sponsor of the business hall of fame,” Wilson said. “We like being involved in honoring these people who have made our community great. The finished product is terrific. Some of the photos were taken 20 years ago, and the quality was different then. I’m so happy to see today’s product.”

The new exhibit is the result of work done for Junior Achievement by Bowling Green’s John Norman McDonald Photography.

“We wanted to make the photos look more consistent,” said Drew Martin, president of the local JA office that provides business and financial lessons in local schools. “We wanted a more timeless look with consistent frames.”

To reach that goal, photographer McDonald worked with some photos that had faded over the years and gave them new life.

“I put them on an easel and took a photo of the photo in order to restore it,” he said. “I made all the backgrounds similar. I enhanced the colors in Photoshop, sharpened the images and darkened the backgrounds.”

The timing of unveiling McDonald’s handiwork couldn’t have been better. Martin used the chamber gathering to kick off JA’s campaign to solicit nominations for the 2019 hall of fame laureates, distributing nomination forms.

Martin explained that only two people are inducted into the hall of fame every two years, making it a prestigious honor.

“We have to pick two out of a large group of nominees,” said Wilson, chairman of the nomination committee. “So it’s difficult. It was good to kick this off today and show everyone the exhibit. We’ll start talking up next year’s event.”

The JA Business Hall of Fame and Appreciation Breakfast is scheduled for March 21, 2019. The laureates to be honored that day are chosen for their entrepreneurial spirit and achievement but also for their record of philanthropy, Martin said.

As Natcher, the former Southern Foods CEO, and Higgins examined the photos of past inductees, they reminisced about the contributions of such local business legends as Houchens Industries founder Ervin Houchens and Camping World founder and Beech Bend Park developer David Garvin.

“Joe and I were talking about these folks, who were real entrepreneurs who also made tremendous contributions to the community,” said Higgins, former CEO of Minit Mart Food Stores. “To be in a group like that is humbling.”

The hall of fame honors such accomplished business leaders, but it also provides examples for current and future generations to emulate, Higgins reasoned.

“Anything we can do to keep studying the past helps guide the future,” he said. “This (hall of fame) keeps that alive.”