Smithfield’s Rotary and Ruritan clubs jointly honored Wesley Brown as Smithfield’s 2024 Citizen of the Year with a catered dinner at the Smithfield Center on March 13. Since 1971, the two clubs have given the award to an outstanding area resident.

Brown, a longtime Kiwanis Club member, can often be found organizing community events, whether it’s the club’s annual fishing clinic that teaches inner-city children from Hampton Roads how to fish, or helping out behind the scenes at BOB Fest, an all-you-can-eat festival highlighting Bloody Marys, oysters and Brunswick stew held annually at Windsor Castle Park.

Brown joined Kiwanis in 1989 when Carter Williams, who would later become Smithfield’s mayor and 2022’s Citizen of the Year, invited Brown and his late wife, Darlene, on a Spirit of Norfolk cruise the club held that year as part of its membership drive.

Brown is also a longtime small-business owner. His father, Quincy, started Brown’s Iron & Wood Works in 1948. It became Brown Brothers Inc. in 1982 and has been known as Brown’s Automotive since 1991 when Wesley and Darlene purchased the family business.

The Gatling Pointe Yacht Club catered the dinner.