The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission will hold a reception on Wednesday to celebrate the naming of a room at the Hot Springs Convention Center in honor of one of its former members.
The commission voted unanimously at its June meeting to name a room in honor of Thomas "Tom" Daniel Sr., a city director and business and civic leader who died on Nov. 9, 2016, after a lengthy battle with cancer.
"Few people in Hot Springs history have served so faithfully and worked so hard to make Hot Springs the vibrant and progressive city that we all enjoy today," ad commission Chairwoman Elizabeth Farris said Friday in a statement released by Visit Hot Springs.
"Tom served three times on the A&P Commission and worked tirelessly with the city's leaders to shape Hot Springs into the city we have now," Farris said.
Daniel organized the annual downtown chili cook-off with his friend and fellow downtown business owner Suzanne Tucker in 2002; the event was renamed in his honor shortly after his death.
The public is welcome to attend the reception for the Tom Daniel Room, which will be held from 4:30-6 p.m. in Room 102 at the convention center.
Daniel was the owner of Spa Fireworks, which put on "massive holiday fireworks displays across Arkansas," Visit Hot Springs said in Friday's release, as well as the owner of National Park Gifts in downtown Hot Springs and numerous other business ventures.
Daniel also was a longtime member of the Hot Springs Board of Directors and was a leader of the Downtown Association for decades.
"The Tom Daniel Room is located next to Horner Hall and, fittingly, is also located next to the Wheeler Room," Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, said in Friday's release.
"Tom and Bob Wheeler worked hand in hand to make Hot Springs and the convention center into a better place for all of our citizens and visitors."
Wheeler, also a former city director and member of the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, spearheaded a number of civic projects, most notably the construction of the Hot Springs Convention Center and Summit Arena, now Bank OZK Arena, and the reopening of Magic Springs. He died in 2009.
Arrison said Daniel served three terms on the commission. He first was appointed in August 1996 and served until August 2006, when he was elected to the Hot Springs Board of Directors, where he served eight years.
Daniel was reappointed to the commission by the city board in September 2009 and served until 2012. In 2014, he was reappointed to the commission as a tourism industry representative and served until his death in 2016. He was chairman of the commission from 2000 to 2002.
The convention center complex has eight other named rooms -- Horner Hall, the Majestic Room, the Arlington Room, the Wheeler Room, the Munro Room, the McMath Room, the Kelley Room and the Senator Terry Smith Room.
Local on 09/14/2019