Sep 13, 2022 12:00 PM
District Governor Ivanhoe Love, Jr.

Ivanhoe Love, Jr. retired from the United States Army on September 12, 1990, after completing 28 years of service. While in the military service, Mr. Love attained the highest enlisted rank possible: Command Sergeant Major, a position he held for over 10 years. His service to his country saw him with two tours of duty in Vietnam and four tours in Europe. Mr. Love was the first African American Sergeant Major to be assigned to the Military Science Department at the University of Texas at Arlington. He was also the first African American Command Sergeant Major to be selected for the United States Military Academy at West Point. Mr. Love’s awards include the Silver Star Medal, 3 awards of the Bronze Star Medal, 3 awards of the Meritorious Service Medal. Since his retirement from the military in 1990, Mr. Love has continued being a public servant. He established the community corrections program within the 26th judicial district in 1991. During the same period, he was appointed by the Governor of Kansas to be Seward County’s first African American County Commissioner, a position he held for one year. Mr. Love developed a program to help at risk youth within the community. The program, Adolescent Support Services has been recognized by the governor as one of the state’s most innovative programs in Kansas. In 2012, Mr. Love developed a truancy program for Seward County and in 2015 a youth (teen) court program. Mr. Love was elected to the City Commission in 1992 and served one year as Vice-Mayor and three terms as Mayor of Liberal, Kansas from April 1998 to April 2001. He graduated from Leadership Liberal in 1992 and was elected to the board of trustees in 1993. He has served on the board of the American Red Cross, the high school site council, a director of Citizens State Bank for over 12 years, a trustee for the Douglas A. Smith Masonic Lodge, a Rotarian, and is a former member of the board of directors of the Seward County Historical Society. Mr. Love is currently a trustee on the hospital board at Southwest Medical Center, chairman of Focus on the Future (an oversight committee of the one cent sales tax) and chairman of the Northeast Liberal Leadership Group (N.E.L.L.). He has two sons, Sean Bedford and Ivanhoe Love III. Ivanhoe joined the Rotary Club of Liberal in 1992 A Paul Harris fellow second award recipient He served as President-Elect 2017-2018 Club President 2018-2019 District Governor Nominee 2020-2021 District Governor Elect 21-22 District Governor 22-23. Ivanhoe says that Rotary has become a way of life and is looking forward to working with other Rotarians imagining the good that Rotary will do in our communities our state and around the world.