Rich Glorioso Receives Brandon Community Leadership Award

Rich Glorioso is the newly named recipient of the Greater Brandon Community Leadership Award, given annually by the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce at its membership dinner.

"It's an honor, it's a real honor," Glorioso said, in an interview minutes before Earl Lennard, a past recipient of the award, presented the former state representative with this year's honor.

"When I found out I was getting the award I was humbled," Glorioso added. "I wasn't even planning on coming to the dinner. My wife and I were in St. Louis, watching the birth of our newest grandson, Daniel Jacob Glorioso."

The decision was made, though, to take the trip back home, where Lennard, the former superintendent of Hillsborough County public schools, said it was his honor to pass on the recognition. Last year's recipient, Attorney General Pam Bondi, could not be in attendance.

Glorioso is retired from public service, having lost his election bid in November to replace Lennard as the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. Lennard vacated the seat, which in turn was won by his second-in-command, Craig Latimer, a Democrat.

As a Republican, Glorioso served in the Florida House of Representatives, from 2004 to 2012. He served as a city commissioner in Plant City from 1998 to 2004. Glorioso, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, "received such medals as the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Combat Readiness Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and Humanitarian Service Medal," according to the program prepared by the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce for its Feb. 1 annual membership dinner, where Glorioso received his award.

The program noted as well that:

"While in the legislature, Rich was a staunch advocate for the children in Florida's foster care system. He was instrumental in ensuring that they receive the care and attention that all children deserve — whether they are i the system for one day or [for] a lifetime. These children may not know who Rich Glorioso is, but their lives may have been changed forever by his service and commitment to them."

"I enjoyed what I did and there's nothing better than to enjoy what you're doing and to be successful at it," Glorioso said. "I've done a lot of things. I sleep really well at night knowing that people are benefiting from the things I did."

He noted bills he heralded to protect the rights of grandparents, foster children and "unaccompanied adults" and measures he supported concerning seat-belt laws and sexual predators. 

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Past recipients of the Greater Brandon Community Leadership Award, and the positions they held at the time, are:

• Senate President Tom Lee
• Speaker of the House Johnnie Byrd
• Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson
• John and Kay Sullivan
• State Representative Sandy Murman
• Julian Craft
• Earl Haugabook
• Paul Senory
• Senator Malcolm Beard
• Sandy and Dottie MacKinnon
• Earl Lennard
• Attorney General Pam Bondi

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