Carper honored with Marvel Cup

WILMINGTON — Former U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, a lifelong public servant that was elected to serve Delaware in state and federal positions for more than 40 years, was honored Monday night with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce’s Marvel Cup award, its highest honor.

Given during the chamber’s 188th annual dinner, the award honors a Delawarean who has made an outstanding contribution to the state, community or society. Named to honor Josiah Marvel, who reorganized the state chamber and served as its first president, the cup has been awarded every year since 1951.

It is tradition that the honoree of the Marvel Cup is kept secret until the night of the dinner, although in recent years, that has proved difficult as the recipient has retired and relocated.

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But on Monday night, the 77-year-old Carper was front and center for the grand reveal. He stood to thunderous applause, and later then told the crowd with a joke to remain standing. A man of many references, be it a quote or aphorism or song lyric, Carper walked on the stage to Kenny Rogers’ song “The Gambler.”

Carper told the crowd of more than 1,000 attendees that unlike others who received the Marvel Cup before him, he did come prepared with a speech.

“I brought this for 20 years in case I ever got this award. It’s like yellow and aging but I think it still might work anyways,” Carper joked.

On a more serious note, Carper talked about the qualities that made a strong leader, such as being humble, and a willingness to serve and draw people together. In his words, he encouraged many in the audience to follow in his footsteps.

“Leaders build bridges, not walls, and they surround themselves with the best people and find them. When the team does well, the leader gives credit to the team, and when the team falls short, the leader takes the blame,” he said. “There’s a French philosopher that says that leaders are purveyors of hope, and he was right. Leaders do what’s right, not what’s expedient.”

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The son of a West Virginia coal miner, Carper would later land a U.S. Navy ROTC  scholarship that took him to Ohio State University as well as on an aircraft carrier and in flying lessons. He went on to fly on behalf of the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, where he and his squadron went on three tours in Southeast Asia.

Carper later would arrive in Delaware when he was working on his MBA at the University of Delaware, where he quickly got into the state’s political scene and campaigned for James Soles for congress in the 1970s. Eventually, he would go on to run as Treasurer himself – embarking on a political career that would take him to Congress, the state’s governorship and later the U.S. Senate.

In some of his quieter achievements, Carper can be credited to cleaning out the Delaware Democratic Party, which had been beholden to party bosses of the past to get things done – and several that had been under federal investigation. He and other colleagues led a campaign to recruit new candidates for party delegates, thus turning the tide for the Democrats and essentially forging the party as it had been known for decades.

During his more than 40 years of public service, Carper has had a hand in almost every major infrastructure project in the state, including the Wilmington Riverfront, AstraZeneca’s arrival and reimagining the old Chrysler plant as the University of Delaware STAR Campus, to name a few matters.

“The Riverfront was probably the biggest economic development driver we’d done, and I don’t know how it would get any better,” said Former Mayor Mike Purzycki said in a pre-recorded comment. “He saw all the possibilities of redeveloping what was an ecological disaster. He believed in all the right things.”

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For many, he was a mentor at all stages in his career, whether he was the governor or U.S. Senator to many like the U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester to Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery.

In a video, Calagione said that Carper had quickly given him a vote of confidence for his business plan even before it became a $300 million success.

“He opened his doors to me, without knowing who I was or my family was, or even if I was invited to the table. He believed in the concept of this brewery, and it was a real catalyst for me as a young entrepreneur to make it happen here,” Calagione said.

 

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