(Photo: Chair of the Board Shane Wolf presents the Honors Hall induction letter to Robin Jeffers, Charles Stephens, and Bennie Bock)
At today’s Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting, Bennie Bock, Robin Jeffers, and Charles Stephens were inducted into the Chamber’s Hall of Honor. Each will have their photo on permanent display in Honors Hall for future generations to follow. They will be further honored at the Chamber’s Annual Banquet to be held January 31, 2019 in the New Braunfels Civic/Convention Center.
Bock is a graduate of New Braunfels High School, the University of Texas, and St. Mary’s School of Law. He has had a successful career as a businessman, entrepreneur, rancher, and attorney. Bock had a distinguished 10-year career representing New Braunfels in the Texas House of Representatives where he wrote significant state laws in transportation, agriculture, historic preservation, parks and wildlife, and the tax and liquor industries to name a few.
He also served as Assistant Attorney General of Texas and Commissioner of the Texas Vehicle Commission and the Texas Unclaimed Mineral Rights Commission. Bock secured the funding for Prince Solms Park from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, chaired the Texas Legislative Conference, was the President of the Sophienburg Museum and Archives, was President of the New Braunfels Industrial Foundation, and opened the Mill Street Art Gallery in 2018.
Jeffers graduated from Canyon High School and at the age of 24 became a small business owner with the purchase of a gymnastics center. She has overseen the growth and operations from that single location with three employees and 275 students to what is now J & R Gymnastics with three locations, 58 employees and more than 1,500 students and families coming through the doors each week.
Jeffers served as Chair of the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce in 2018, is a Blue Coat Ambassador, was named Small Business Person of the Year in 2011, served on the City’s Downtown Board and has been a Baroness with the Braunfels Foundation Trust since 2012. She is a member of the Sophienburg Museum and the Headwaters at the Comal Capital Campaign Committee, serves community Thanksgiving dinners, is an annual bell ringer for The Salvation Army, and is a professional member of USA Gymnastics and Gymnastics Association of Texas.
Stephens is the Comal County Court at Law #2 Judge, the teen court Judge, 18-Court Academy Instructor, and member of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Stephens was a catalyst for Comal County’s Veteran’s Treatment Court. He is a Blue Coat Ambassador and recipient of the Chair of the Board Award in 2016.
He is an Opa with the Wurstfest Association, past President of the Canyon Lake Chamber of Commerce and New Braunfels Non Lions Club, he is the Vice President of the Braunfels Foundation Trust, director for the county Water Oriented Recreation District, past Director of St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, and an Adventure Leader and Assistant Scoutmaster with a Boy Scouts Troops.