Troy University Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr. has been recognized for his long record of service by the Montgomery Sunrise Rotary Club.
Dr. Hawkins received the 2026 Commitment to Service Award during the organization’s fourth annual Shrimp Boil fundraiser held recently at the Union Station Train Shed in downtown Montgomery. The event raised money for three River Region nonprofits – Aid to Inmate Mothers, Love Loud Montgomery and The Grove.
Michael Coleman, chair of the event, said Dr. Hawkins has spent his lifetime emulating the Rotary principle of service above self.
“Throughout his career from the University of Alabama Birmingham to leading the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind to his decades at TROY, Dr. Hawkins has consistently chosen to lead in places where impact matters most,” Coleman said. “His greatest legacy is not found in awards but in the numerous lives he has impacted and the doors he has opened for others. His influence will continue for generations. Rotary calls us to live lives of service, put others first, to lead with integrity, to leave our communities better than we found them. Dr. Hawkins has done exactly that, and we are pleased to recognize him with this year’s Commitment to Service Award.”
Dr. Hawkins was introduced by his longtime friend and former Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange. Strange was a recipient of the Commitment to Service Award in 2019, and Hawkins had the opportunity to be one of three to introduce him on that day.
Strange remembered when their friendship first began at Mobile’s Sidney Phillips Junior High School, noting Hawkins’ popularity at the school.
“I ran into him in the seventh grade at Sidney Phillips Junior High School. I’m his elder by one year,” Strange said. “I have the magazine that has the 7th and 8th grade who’s who of Phillips Junior High, and I will tell you, Jack Hawkins was on there. Hawkins was on the list for the prettiest smile, he was the best dressed, best liked, wittiest, the cutest, the best personality, most handsome and most friendly.”
The two would go on to Murphy High School and then reunite at what was then Alabama College, now the University of Montevallo. Strange joked that he encouraged Hawkins to consider attending Alabama College, noting that at the time, the ratio of females to males was seven to one.
Dr. Hawkins said he was humbled to be honored with the Commitment to Service Award.
“I have been a Rotarian for about 35 years and ‘Service above Self’ is meaningful. When I think of the phrase service above self, I think about the core values of Troy University,” Dr. Hawkins said. “We are a public university, but we stand on the same values in many ways as does Rotary. I think the best of the human spirit is found in organizations such as Rotary across this nation. There are so many people that deserve this far more than I do, but I am extremely grateful and humbled by it. This is an honor I will never forget.”
