2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

The recipients of the 2009 awards are: legendary football coach Vince Dooley '54 of Athens, Ga.; retired astronaut Hank Hartsfield Jr. '54 of El Lago, Texas; nuclear energy specialist Oliver Kingsley Jr. '66 of Birmingham; and M-1 Abrams battle tank developer Phil Lett '44 of Southfield, Mich.

Each year, the Auburn Alumni Association recognizes extraordinary accomplishment by members of the Auburn family. To be selected for the award, nominees must have attained prominence in their professional careers, and they must be persons of integrity, stature and demonstrated ability.

Coach Vincent J. Dooley was born on Sept. 4, 1932, in Mobile, Ala. He was an All-Star at Auburn in both basketball and football, playing under Shug Jordan. He earned a bachelor’s in business in 1954 and a master’s in history in 1963. Dooley also served as an assistant football coach for Auburn’s 1957 national championship team. In December 1963, Dooley was named head football coach at the University of Georgia and for the next 25 years, led the Bulldogs to a career record of 201-77-10, becoming only the ninth coach in NCAA Division I history to win more than 200 games. He retired as head coach in January 1988. Dooley also served as athletics director for 25 years. He is a seven-time SEC Coach of the Year, six-time NCAA District Coach of the Year, and was 1980 NCAA National Coach of the Year. He and his wife, the former Barbara Meshad of Birmingham, live in Athens, Ga.

Born in Birmingham, Ala., on Nov. 21, 1933, Hank Hartsfield Jr. graduated from West End High School and earned his bachelor’s in physics from Auburn in 1954. He earned a master’s in engineering science from the University of Tennessee in 1971. Hartsfield graduated as a fighter pilot from the United States Air Force Test Pilot School in1965 and was eventually assigned to NASA as an astronaut supporting Apollo 16 and the Skylab mission as a capsule communicator, or “capcom.” He retired from the Air Force in 1977, but continued to serve NASA in a civilian capacity. In June 1982, he piloted the fourth and final test flight of Space Shuttle Columbia with fellow Auburn alum Ken Mattingly as commander. In 1984, he served as commander of the maiden voyage of Discovery, and in 1985 commanded the Challenger on the German D-1 Spacelab mission. He retired in 1997 and joined Raytheon in Houston, Texas, until his retirement in April 2005. Hartsfield and his wife, the former Frances Massey of Princeton, N.C., have two daughters and live in Houston.

A native of Ozark, Ala., Oliver Kingsley attended Auburn under a Navy ROTC scholarship, graduating with honors in 1966 with a bachelor’s in engineering physics. After serving in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine force, Kingsley launched an unparalleled civilian career in nuclear energy. Kingsley is regarded as the nuclear industry’s premier practitioner of operational excellence, specializing in transforming troubled nuclear programs into industry leaders. Throughout his career of managing nuclear-generation organizations (at Southern Company, Middle South Utilities, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Commonwealth Edison and Exelon Corp.), he has proven that, when properly managed, nuclear power is safe, reliable and economically competitive. The capstone of his nuclear-management career was as president and chief operating officer of Exelon Corp., owner of the largest nuclear fleet in the United States. Kingsley has also served as president of the World Association of Nuclear Operators and is currently a member of the boards of McDermott International and FPL Group. He and his wife, Sally, live in Birmingham. They have four children and five grandchildren.

Born on May 4, 1922, Philip Lett holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Auburn, a master’s degree from the University of Alabama and a doctorate from the University of Michigan. Lett is universally acknowledged as the father of the M-1 Abrams main battle tank, viewed by the military community as the most important tank in the history of mechanized warfare. The M1 Abrams, which entered U.S. military service in 1980, is the principal combat tank of the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marines, and the armies of Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Lett is also responsible for the development of a wide variety of other mechanized vehicles, such as the T-51 heavy recovery vehicle and the HET-70 heavy transporter. The tanks Lett helped create, which focused not only on defeating the enemy but also on the safety of soldiers, saved countless American lives during the Gulf War and have been credited with directly contributing to a swift American victory.

The March 7th dinner to recognize the recipients of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Awards was held at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.