SMITHFIELD - Davidson Neville was a bit surprised when his children showed up for the Smithfield-Selma Chamber of Commerce banquet last week. After all, he almost skipped the event to stay home with them.

Neville didn't know it, but his kids were there to see their dad receive the chamber's Citizen of the Year Award. Everyone in the family knew but Neville; his sister even flew in secretly from New Jersey. "I didn't expect it at all," Neville said.

He received the award because of his years of work with the chamber, including a stint as chairman, and for his efforts as a founder of Neuse Charter School. In presenting the award, attorney David Mills cited his friend's tireless work ethic.

"He leaves nothing to chance -- he performs, and he does what he sets out to do," Mills said. "Dave Neville is a talker and a doer. He doesn't finish until it's done."

Though he's played a major role in starting and running Johnston County's only charter school, Neville is reluctant to take credit for any aspect of the school's success. "There's no one person that can put together a charter school," he said. "There's a lot of work that goes into that."

But Neville will admit that his part in getting the school off the ground wasn't easy. "You only have six months to pull all this together," he said. "That was a huge challenge. The first year, I felt I was almost an administrator of the school as well as having a full-time job."

Neville's work with the school has been personal; his 11-year-old son is a student at Neuse Charter. While chairman of the school's board, he looked to his son to get the students' perspective. The school's decision to loosen the dress code and allow blue jeans was thanks in part to Neville and his son.

"It's very good to get his input," Neville said.

Though Neville has given up some of his Neuse Charter duties to focus on his family, he's still on the board and looking forward to the school's expansion to high school.

"We want this to be the best school in the state," he said.

Before getting involved with the charter school, Neville led the chamber in 2001 and made it an active year with 12 resolutions weighing in on such issues as the Booker Dairy Road extension.

"I felt it was time for the chamber to go on record," he said.

This year, he's serving on the chamber's economic-development committee, and he hopes to push for road improvements such as widening East Market Street to the outlet center.

Outside of public service, Neville is a principal in the insurance business his father Graham started, now known as Triangle Insurance Group.