The Murphysboro American published a special section recently called "Outstanding Men of Jackson County."
After that special section was published, the newspaper decided to let readers vote on who is the "Man of the Year?"
Those readers chose Mike Cripps.
Cripps is the President of First Bank & Trust Company in Murphysboro. He is also Vice President of  the Murphysboro C.U.S.D. #186 School Board, as well as a member of the Murphysboro Elk's, Murphysboro Moose Lodge, Sons of the American Legion, and Masonic Lodge 498.
Cripps said he was humbled by being named Outstanding Man of Jackson County.
"It's kind of humbling that people would take the time to vote for me,'' he said. "It's humbling to even be nominated, to be honest with you.
"I think most people in this situation really don't feel deserving. It's a humbling experience, and I do appreciate those people that voted for me."
Cripps said that he doesn't know why he received the accolades.
"Why it happened? I don't know,'' he said. "I just do what I do. I guess people do recognize that.
"Maybe I'm a little more high profile than some of the guys on the ballot who may have been more deserving than me. I've worked downtown, and I've been with the bank for a long time and know a lot of people. I'm a hometown boy. I was born and raised here, so by virtue of that I know a lot of people.
"I think, maybe, they recognized my commitment to the community, to the bank, and to trying to make everybody's life a little bit better in Murphysboro."
After finishing high school, Cripps went to Southern Illinois University, where he graduated with a degree in History.
Following graduation he needed a job for the summer and had planned on teaching in the fall. In fact, he had four offers to teach, but all were in the Chicago area or in northwest Illinois.
But Cripps took a job for the summer as a teller at the bank. The rest is history.
Cripps would eventually move into the loan department, and then headed to collections. After that he became cashier and oversaw the banks operations for a number of years.
He would eventually move on to loan officer, then got into the executive ranks as executive vice president. He held that post for about 10 years before becoming bank president in 1998.
Cripps is a member of the First Presbyterian Church. He works with a lot of the organizations and clubs he is a member of. However, when it comes to helping others and giving back to the community he really likes to keep it low key.
"I do things with the Elk's, Masonic Lodge, Moose, etc...,'' Cripps said. "But what I do mostly is kind of fly under the radar and do things for individuals that I see, or raise funds for them, or help people out on a case-by-case basis. I don't want recognition for it. I just want to be able to help somebody out."
And he can help young people heading into the work force, too, with a little advice.
"The first thing I would tell them is that there is no escaping hard work,'' Cripps said. "It doesn't matter what business or venture you are in to. You've got to apply yourself and always be ready for that promotion.
"Just because you hang around some place for four or five years and you think it's time to be promoted, it doesn't mean you're ready to be promoted. You need to always be studying and preparing yourself for the next step. You've just got to pay your dues."
And Cripps says that you can't be afraid to fail.
"So many young kids today I think would be inclined to be afraid to fail when they are starting out their careers,'' Cripps said. "I think that the older you get and the more mature you get that you kind of lose that fear of failure thing. I guess that comes with some degree of success you have and building your own confidence.
"But by the same token, I fail everyday in some manner, shape, or form. We are human beings. We fail in our personal lives and we fail in our professional lives. You just try to mitigate those and make them small failures rather than big catastrophes."