By DEANNA POGORELC
Staff Writer

     Indiana Sen. Gary Dillon said he was “totally floored” when Sen. David Long presented him with the Sagamore of the Wabash award on behalf of Gov. Mitch Daniels Saturday evening.
     Dillon, a former Columbia City resident who now lives in Pierceton, was presented with the award at a thank you party he threw at his home for the people who have supported him over the years. “I almost cried,” he said of receiving the award. “It was such an honor.”
     The Sagamore of the Wabash award is given by the governor to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding service to the state of Indiana or to the governor.
     Dillon has represented Indiana’s District 17 in the State Senate since 2002. Prior to that he served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1998 to 2002. In July, he announced that he would not seek re-election when his term ends in Nov. 2010.
     In addition to his time in the Indiana House and Senate, Dillon also has a long history of serving the Whitley County community in several capacities. He is a former president of the Whitley County Health Department, former president of the Whitley County School Board, former president of the Whitley County Memorial Hospital Staff and the former Hospice Medical Director of Whitley County.
     Out of all of his accomplishments, Dillon said one of his proudest is that he was on the school board when the Columbia City schools consolidated in the 1980s.
     “The people in Whitley County just pulled together and I think went through this without a lot of the bad feelings that have plagued other communities,” he said. “I think also when we made the consolidation, it allowed the children more academic opportunities which you couldn’t do in smaller schools. I was proud to be a part of that.”
     Dillon said that when he retires from the Senate next year, he will continue teaching part time as a clinical professor of dermatology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He will also be able to spend more time with his children and grandchildren.
     He said he hopes that he will be remembered as “a public servant who did the job honestly and honorably.”
     “When your friends and acquaintances elect you to represent them, it really is an honor, and that generates quite a responsibility to do a good job for them,” he said.