MARK WAITE / PVT Reggie Knight poses with the proclamation read into the Congressional Record Sept. 20. Advertisement

Reggie Knight, a Disabled American Veterans service officer based in Pahrump, was the subject of a page-long feature story in the September 2006 issue of the Nevada Association of Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) magazine.

U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., liked the story enough he read a proclamation honoring Knight into the Congressional Record Sept. 20.

The magazine article pays tribute to Knight for tripling the number of members of NARFE Chapter No. 2276 and mentions his service to the Pahrump community.

"Reggie has also involved himself in a number of efforts to enrich the lives of the Pahrump community," the proclamation states.

Knight has worked with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Service on 4-H programs, helped bring the Big Brothers Big Sisters program to Pahrump and lobbied the Nevada legislature to fund the Pahrump high tech center in 2001, the same year he received the Golden Heart Community Service Award from the United Way.

Knight graduated from Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Mich., in 1954 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps, with which he saw action in Vietnam, before retiring in 1974 as a sergeant major.

He then worked for the Veterans Administration as a representative at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., and later as a VA health systems specialist in Loma Linda, Calif.

When Knight retired and moved to Pahrump in 1994, he had been working as a senior employment development specialist at the U.S. Army Tank/Auto Command in Warren, Mich.

Knight was attending a national convention in Albuquerque when he heard about the award. He collected the plaque at Porter's office in Henderson.

"What can I say, to be a tribute to me I wasn't expecting, I just do a job to help people," Knight said. "I feel it's a real honor to be recognized in the Congressional Record."