Wendell Crowe said he has always wanted to help Newton County’s youth organizations because of the need to encourage young people to make their own contributions to the community in the future.

“If you don’t get leadership for the kids in this county if they stay here then you’re not going to have good, young citizens staying in Newton County,” he said.

Crowe’s business is Covington Ford and he said he has worked to contribute his time and money to the community to pay it back for the support his family’s business has received for eight decades.

“I made my living for 80 years from Newton County so I feel like I owe it to Newton County to pay back,” he said.

However, he said he is not working to help the community “for a pat on the back.”

“It’s just something I do,” he said.

Crowe said he has donated his time and money to organizations throughout Newton County — with the only non-local groups being the national Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts organizations.

“I feel like it’s more important for the money to go right back into our county than it is to the nation,” he said.

He also served on numerous boards of civic organizations and volunteered his time to coach youth sports and chair the Chamber board in 1973. Crowe is a longtime Elks Club member and has been a Kiwanis Club member for 25 years, he said.

His company also contributes to the Newton County School System’s Teacher of the Year award, Special Olympics, the Covington Police Department’s Fuzz Run and the Cheerios Challenge race.

Crowe has owned Covington Ford since 1974 after taking it over from his late father — whom he said was always “community-oriented.”

“I probably got a lot of it from him,” he said. “I’ve always tried to help organizations in Newton County, especially with kids.”

Crowe’s father, Wendell W. Crowe, opened the dealership on Clark Street near the Covington Square just before the U.S. entered World War II in 1941. 

Twenty years later, in 1961, it moved it to a site on U.S. Hwy. 278 at Elm Street. Wendell Crowe joined the business the same year straight out of college, he said. The dealership moved to its current location on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in 2011.

The Newton County Chamber of Commerce earlier this year honored Crowe with its R.O. Arnold Award.

The award is given to someone annually within the business community “who has continued to give back to our community,” according to information from the Chamber. 

It also is considered one of the county’s most prestigious awards, with some past winners being the late Almond Turner, Beaver Manufacturing founders Ed and Nonie Needham, Ginn Motor Co. owner Billy Fortson, retired Superior Court Judge Sam Ozburn and Sunbelt Builders founder Samuel Burney Hay Jr.

The award is named after Robert O. Arnold, who chamber president Debbie Harper described as a local business leader “who gave unselfishly of his time and resources to Newton County” throughout his life. Harper said she and others felt Crowe embodied attributes similar to Arnold and made him a perfect fit for the award in 2020.

Former state lawmaker Denny Dobbs said he believed Crowe embodies “the spirit of the original idea behind Mr. Bob Arnold’s award.”

“You talk about community involvement and what business leaders mean to this community, this is it,” Dobbs said after Crowe received the award. “… And I know there’s a world of folks ...  he’s helped that we won’t ever know about, because he don’t ever want the spotlight.”  

Crowe, 81, said he was most proud of the fact three generations of his family — Crowe, his son and a grandson — earned their Eagle Scout ranks from the Boy Scouts.

Another source of pride: Crowe and wife Connie have been married for 62 years.