Fifty years is a long time. For the some 20-member Troy Kiwanis Club, it’s especially significant.

That’s why the local club boasts of its recently recognized 50-year member Jerry Spann, honored last week.

“He’s sort of the cornerstone of the kind of character we all try to live through Kiwanis,” said President Joel Lee Williams.

The local club has been established in Troy since 1922, and Williams said to his knowledge, Spann is the only local member to share this honor.

Spann was invited to join the club while he was a schoolteacher at Troy Elementary School.

“There were mostly women teachers, and I said I needed some association with men, so I accepted the invitation,” Spann said.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it through the years.”

The Troy Kiwanis Club serves youth throughout the county, sponsoring the Circle K and Key Clubs.

“We do a very good RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program at Head Start.

In his time in Kiwanis, Spann has served as president three times and traveled to the international convention in Portland, Ore.

“In my young days, it kept me interested in what’s going on in Kiwanis internationally,” Spann said.

Spann said before he joined the group, there was a domino game started, where four men met and played an hour before the weekly meetings.

Eventually a spot opened for Spann, and he joined in the game that is still being played today.

Spann was honored at the meeting, when the International Kiwanis Club president called the meeting and inducted him into the Kiwanis Leadership Society.