11/3/03

AUBURN LEGENDS TAPPED FOR 2003 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

AUBURN -- Four of Auburn University's most prominent alumni will receive the Auburn Alumni Association's Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2003 at a formal dinner and ceremony in March.

The awards will be presented posthumously to two former AU presidents, Wilford Sherrill Bailey and Ralph Brown Draughon; Samuel N. Mockbee, internationally-renowned architecture professor and co-founder of Auburn's famed Rural Studio; and industrialist and philanthropist Roy Brown Sewell.

The four will be recognized at a black-tie dinner and induction ceremony on March 6, 2004, at the AU Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

Betty DeMent, AU vice president for Alumni Affairs, said this year's honorees "represent the highest ideals and aspirations of Auburn people everywhere."

"Through their many accomplishments and years of dedicated service, they have left a legacy to Auburn University that will impact future generations for many years to come," said DeMent.

The award -- the highest honor given by the Auburn Alumni Association -- was established four years ago to recognize extraordinary accomplishment by members of the Auburn family.

Bailey graduated from Auburn with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1942, the year he began his half century of service to the university as an instructor in the Department of Pathology and Parasitology. He earned his master's degree at Auburn in 1946 and his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in 1950.

In 1983-1984, Auburn's Board of Trustees named Bailey interim president while a committee conducted a search for a new president. The Alabama Legislature officially named him the university's 13th president in recognition of his outstanding service. In 1984, he was named President Emeritus, was appointed the first University Professor, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.

Among his many awards are the 1983-84 Administrator of the Year for Alabama Higher Education; AU's 1986 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award; and the 1992 Arthritis Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Bailey died in 2002 at the age of 79.

Draughon was Auburn's 10th president, serving from 1947 to 1965, during a period of unprecedented institutional expansion. A native of Alabama, he graduated from Auburn in 1922. After earning his master's degree from Auburn, he studied government in a postgraduate program at the University of Chicago.

A beloved administrator, scholar and teacher, he played a key role in achieving the university's peaceful racial integration in 1965 following a period of intense racial turmoil in Alabama. During his presidency, the university's name was officially changed from Alabama Polytechnic Institute to Auburn University. He regarded the building of the new campus library as his most important achievement. Built in 1962, the library is named in his honor.

In addition to an honorary doctorate from Auburn, Draughon received honorary degrees from Birmingham-Southern College, Samford University and the University of Alabama. He died in 1968.

Mockbee, affectionately known as Sambo, brought international acclaim to the programs of the College of Architecture, Design, and Construction, chiefly through his work with the university's Rural Studio, which he and a colleague co-founded in 1992.

A 1974 Auburn graduate with a degree in architecture, Mockbee worked in private practice in Mississippi for several years, returning to Auburn in 1991 as a professor of architecture.

Created to provide innovative and sustainable housing for poor families in rural West Alabama and, at the same time, instill in young architects a sense of social responsibility, the program has been featured in architectural and general interest magazines, conferences throughout the world and on network television.

The studio's unique structures, built at low cost from such "found" materials as old tires and bales of hay, continue to be given, free-of-charge, to families and communities in West Alabama.

Among Mockbee's many honors and awards were Oprah Winfrey's 2001 Use Your Life Award, a Genius Grant from the MacArthur Foundation and the International Quality of Life Award from Auburn's College of Human Sciences. Mockbee died in 2001 at age 57.

Sewell was an industrialist and a philanthropist and one of Auburn's most loyal supporters. A member of the AU class of 1922, he was a member of the board of the AU Foundation, president of the National Alumni Association and president of the Atlanta Auburn Club. One of America's largest manufacturers of men's clothing, he operated several plants in Georgia and Alabama.

In 1955, he commissioned the creation of Auburn's fight song "War Eagle." In 1957, he was the alumni recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and, in 1958, was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from Auburn in recognition of his decades of service.

Sewell Hall, the university's athletic dormitory and dining hall, was named in his honor in 1964. Sewell died in 1988.

For tickets or more information contact Charmoin Tatum, at 334/844-2995. (tatumch@auburn.edu).

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nov03:AU-lifetime