MANCHESTER - Joining the ranks of former mayors and leaders of business, Joseph B. Reilly was named Thursday night as the 2013 Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.

Reilly said he was humbled by an award he felt should go to people who live a life of service everyday.

"I think of so many people who are so deserving, so many people who provide civil service in our community; firefighters, policemen, teachers, emergency providers," he said. "And they put me in a position of not being very deserving. I look at so many others and wonder why I should be here."

The selection was kept a secret until it was announced at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Armory Exhibition Center at the Radisson Hotel, even from Reilly.

"It was a tremendous surprise," Reilly said.

Reilly co-founded Centrix Bank in 1998, focusing on providing full service commercial banking services to small to medium-sized businesses and professionals in New Hampshire, according to the bank's website. Today, the bank offers a full range of personal and business bank products. It is headquartered in Bedford and has branches in Concord, Dover, Manchester, Milford and Portsmouth, along with a loan production office in Nashua.

In announcing Reilly as the Citizen of the Year, Michael A. L'Ecuyer, president and CEO of Bellwether Credit Union, said Reilly never turns down a request to volunteer his time.

"Tireless seems like an appropriate description of our winner," L'Ecuyer said.

Past recipients include former Manchester mayors Robert Baines and Raymond Wieczorek, Manchester attorney Jack Middleton and businessman Dick Anagnost.

"He's a great guy. It's a great honor for him," Mayor Ted Gatsas said of Reilly. "He does so much for this community."



tbuckland@unionleader.com