Ron Frederiksen received the Vancouver Business Journal’s first annual Kyle W. Corwin Lifetime Achievement Award Nov. 4 at The Hilton Vancouver.
Frederiksen, 56, is president and chief executive officer of Vancouver-based RSV Construction Services and was nominated for the award by Diane Christie, executive director of Vancouver-based Share Inc.
Frederiksen was chosen by a panel of independent business people who reviewed the nominations.
The Corwin award was established in 2007 in honor of Kyle Corwin, who owned Vancouver-based Corwin Beverage and made the company one of the top Pepsi bottlers and distributors before he died in 2006.
His work in the community and for nonprofits was extensive, and Corwin invested in two start-up companies, Tumwater-based Pepsi Northwest Beverages and Vancouver-based Brown Warrior Publishing LLC, which owns the VBJ.
“Four generations had given so much to our company, especially in their work, so he just wanted to help out with whatever he could give,” said his daughter Courtney Corwin Barker, marketing and community events manager at Corwin Beverage.
“If we couldn’t give monetarily he wanted to figure out (another) way he could help.”
Following a similar path, Frederiksen has served the Vancouver community professionally and philanthropically for 28 years.
Frederiksen came to RSV in 1980 as a business manager for his late parents, Gene and Jocelyn Frederiksen. In five years he shifted the company’s client base from government to the private sector. He bought the company in 1989 with two partners.
The company has become one of Vancouver’s largest commercial contractors, completing more than 2,500 projects for business owners and real estate investors.
But Frederiksen said RSV’s milestones haven’t been projects completed, but relationships developed – notably, long-term ties with RS Medical and Nutrition Now, both Vancouver companies.
He also kept RSV involved with the nonprofit sector, particularly with Vancouver-based Innovative Services NW and Share.
With his wife, Terry Murphy, Frederiksen served on Innovative Services NW’s capital campaign committee and helped raise more than $7 million in five years for a new facility, which RSV completed in spring 2008.
He is now involved with Share’s capital campaign committee.
“My industry is not set up to help nonprofits,” Frederiksen said. “They just don’t have the funds to hire an architect or consultant. Sometimes you just need a catalyst and that’s what I can be.”
Frederiksen is on the board of directors for Identity Clark County, the Responsible Growth Forum and the city of Vancouver’s Aviation Advisory Committee and volunteers for the YWCA Clark County and the Washington and Oregon chapters of Angel Flight, transporting hospital patients and their families.
He was board president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council in 2007 and served on the boards for Pearson Air Museum and the Columbia Aviation Association.
Frederiksen served six years in the United States Air Force. He holds a master’s degree in human resource management from Gonzaga University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Central Washington University.
“As you go through your life, you’re just trying to do the best you can every day,” Frederiksen said. “It was an amazing thing for me that they thought I exhibit the same characteristics (as Corwin).”
Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com.
