Jim Scott and Robin Mangarin to be honored at the John Brock Awards

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — They’re like our next door neighbors. Good friends, equal parts wise parents and trustworthy colleagues. For 30 years, Jim Scott and Robin Mangarin Scott have entered our homes through our television screens.

We know them by name, face and voice, like family members – and when they tell us something, we trust it, because their experience has proven that their word can be relied on.

Now the community gets to give back to them, in a small but meaningful way.

The evening of September 5th, the annual John Brock awards will go out to Jim and Robin – spouses off screen and, for many years, partners on screen. Now that partnership, productive in so many ways, is being honored at the 36th John Brock Community Service Award, bestowed annually on a community leader or leaders who have demonstrated a lifetime of service to Bakersfield and Kern County.

“The John Brock Award is literally our community service citizen of the year type of an award. It got founded based on John Brock – Brock’s Department Store, 35, 40 years ago – when a group of business people got together and said, Hey, we need to raise money for scholarships for students in the School of Business at Cal State University,” Board member of the John Brock Community Service Award, Patrick Collins said.

The couple met on a Bakersfield television news set in 1986, and were married in 1989.

In 1994, they moved their family to San Diego, where they served as anchor-reporters at different stations. Then in late 1996, KGET-TV offered them a chance to return to Bakersfield and they’ve been here – together – ever since.

Robin serves as a Marketing and Communications Director for Dignity Health, where she regularly helps coordinate programs and public service messages that push the people of Kern County ever closer to robust health.

Jim continues to reign over the anchor desk here at 17 News, making him the longest-running television news anchor in Kern County history.

Now, they’re set to be honored as community leaders – trusted, relatable faces of reliable news and information – at the John Brock Community Service Award on Thursday, September 5th.

“They’ve contributed in countless unique ways, in their own way, making it truly special and enjoyable to acknowledge their dedication to the community,” said Collins about the couple.

Proceeds from the recognition dinner help fund the CSUB John Brock Endowment, which supports scholarships and programs for students in CSUB’s School of Business and Public Administration.

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