Servant leaders, mentors, and friends. That’s just a few words to describe the 2024 class of Great Living Cincinnatians.
The Cincinnati Regional Chamber recognized those who have left an indelible mark on our region. Learn more about John F. Barrett, Sally Duffy, SC, Delores Hargrove-Young and Donna Salyers.
John Barrett
is a dreamer. Sure, he’s also the Chairman, President and CEO of Fortune 500 company Western & Southern, member of a long-time Cincinnati family, and a pillar in the Greater Cincinnati community, but at the heart of his success, one simple credo can be found: he followed his dreams.
“I’ve always been a dreamer,” said Barrett. “I would think about stuff that other people just didn’t care to think about. ‘Why would you do this, why would you do that? What about this?’ My thing was, I was eager. I was learning. I was building. I was having fun. I’m a different kind of guy that way. From your dreams you develop your vision. I want to be the best person or partner you ever dealt with. I want you to leave the room thinking, ‘That guy is a guy I can count on.’”
Sister Sally Duffy
Sister Sally Duffy’s 40-plus years of advocacyand service as a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati might look like a career to the secular, but to her, it is much more than that.
“It’s not a career,” said Duffy. “It’s a ministry. Because you’re mutually doing what you and the Sisters of Charity Community feel like God is calling you to.”
The middle of nine children, as a young child, she knew she was Irish, Catholic, and a Democrat (her father John was a Franklin County Municipal and Appeals Court judge). And she was interested from the outset in helping others.
“My parents definitely put a focus on the common good and that’s the reason we’re here, is for love and justice,” said Duffy. “To make the world a better place for everyone.”
Delores Hargrove-Young
From the very beginning, the vice chairwoman of d.e. Foxx & Associates, Inc. was modeled an example of offering assistance to those who needed it.
Her beginnings were humble; she grew up in Jacksonville, Florida – “we called it Southeast Georgia,” she said – with her brother and parents. Her mother was a homemaker, her father a blue-collar worker, but she was none the wiser about her economic status until visiting family told her otherwise.
“I thought, ‘How could we be poor when my parents were always helping other people?’” said Hargrove-Young.
Donna Salyers
Donna Salyers is a self-made woman who makes things and makes a difference, a former newspaper columnist and TV show host, and current mogul of Fabulous-Furs, the world’s largest faux fur retailer. So. What is her story?
“My family was from Northern Kentucky, and my grandma taught me how to sew,” said Salyers. “We were a blue-collar family, and I graduated from Dixie Heights High School. I began working in Covington when I was 13 at a store called Goldsmith’s, where Coppin’s now sits.”