ISU-Meridian’s Dean Bessie Katsilometes and husband, Tom, named Idaho Hometown Heroes

They are among 10 Idahoans—including Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and Treasure Valley YMCA chief executive, Jim Everett—who will receive the 2013 Idaho Hometown Hero medal.

The Katsilometeses are the first joint medal recipients, according to the Idaho Hometown Heroes organizing committee, which announced the honorees at a press conference July 23 in Pocatello.

The organization described the couple as "first-generation Greek-Americans who have dedicated themselves to lifelong self-improvement and community service from Pocatello to Boise while also helping so many others to enhance their own opportunities."

Katsilometes serves as dean of academic programs at the ISU-Meridian Health Science Center and Tom Katsilometes, a former Bannock County commissioner, is an Idaho State tax commissioner.  Both are graduates of Idaho State University.

Other honorees include Bannock County Commissioner Howard Manwaring; 89-year-old Rupert physician and World War II veteran Don Pates; Aberdeen rancher and artist Jose Antonio Quezada, and Angie Smoot, a Boise mother who intervened to stop a sexual assault on another woman at Boise Towne Square Mall last spring.

The medal ceremony, which begins at 6 p.m., is free and open to the public. For more information about the gala dinner celebration immediately following the medal ceremony, visit idahohometownhero.org.

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