DAVIS COUNTY—Each year the Davis Chamber of Commerce selects an individual to receive the prestigious Chamber Legacy Award. The award honors someone whose dedication and leadership has made a lasting impact in the county. This year’s recipient is Commissioner Bob Stevenson. Stevenson will be presented with the award at the Davis Chamber of Commerce Annual Business Awards Banquet, Thursday Sept. 25.

“It’s a humbling thing,” said Stevenson. “I don’t like to draw attention to myself. I’ll clap and cheer for someone else but I struggle when people clap for me.”

Stevenson is currently serving as a Davis County Commissioner but is not seeking reelection. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the job,” he said. “I’m a believer in two terms. I had the opportunity, now I want to give someone else the opportunity. They will come in with new and better ideas and take it even further than I did in my eight years.” 

After graduating from Layton High School, Stevenson was a baseball umpire. “I did that during the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said. “I love working with kids. I believe kids need to learn about winning and losing. That's important. It adds to their life.”

He also served as a volunteer firefighter for 14 years. “It was great, there was such camaraderie but there were hard times too,” said Stevenson. “There is death and you see that. That gave me an appreciation for public safety and the importance of individuals who serve as EMS, firefighters and police officers.”

Stevenson graduated from Weber State University and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and did masters work in Distributed Education at Utah State University.

“I was teaching at Layton High and was approached by someone at the Carnation Company,” he said. “They asked if I’d ever thought about anything else but teaching. I went to work with Carnation. It was purchased by Nestle and I worked there for more than 30 years.”

Stevenson also worked in the construction business. “Our first house my wife and I kind of built ourselves,” he said. “It was a lot of work. Then four or five years later we decided to do it again. That was in the late 70s early 80s. In the 90s my boys wanted to help so I got my license and built here and there on the side.”

At one point Stevenson was elected chair of the Home Builders Association. “I kind of laughed and said ‘you’ve elected a candy bar salesman.’”

In 1981, he was elected as a member of the Layton City Council. “I was 27 years old,” he said. “I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was doing. I look back now and think ‘you’ve got to be kidding me.’”

He was reelected three times. “I stepped down in 1991,” Stevenson said. “My wife was pregnant with twins. That ended my political career then. After we raised the kids, a 22 year gap, I ran for mayor.”

After serving as mayor he ran for County Commission and took office in 2019. “I never had a goal to be a mayor or commissioner,” he said. “I didn’t grow up thinking ‘I want to be on the city council. Having the experience of being a mayor of a city as large as Layton gave me the perspective of the city/county relationship.”

While in office the commission has accomplished a great deal to help the county, he said. “We worked with UDOT to get the West Davis Corridor and remodel of Highway 89. We put tourism dollars to help Centerpoint and the Davis Arts Council. Culture is important. We also built the Western Sports Park. It was created to bring more people to Davis County where they’ll spend money and then go back to where they live. That gives us the revenue needed to help keep the county going and not have to go back to the taxpayer.”

Stevenson said the county has also worked on economic development. “There are different legs, entertainment, new business coming in, transportation, the school district, etc. We work with the cities too.”

The county has worked diligently to keep homelessness well under control while making sure people are being taken care of, he said. “Our goal is to keep Code Blue small and stay on top of that.”

Stevenson leaves office at the end of this year. “What’s next?” he said. “Who knows? I’ll always do something else. The worst thing you can do is turn around and turn on the TV and put your feet up. We need to be willing to continue to help others with the things you may have learned.”