The Auburn Alumni Association has named four recipients of it’s highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Charles Barkley ‘86, Melanie Barstad ‘75, Charles Gavin III ‘59 and Keith King ‘58 will be honored March 3, 2018 at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.
Barkley, a health and physical education major, was one of the most dominant Auburn basketball players during his time at the school. Taken fifth overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1984 NBA draft, joining the Phoenix Suns in 1992 and retiring in 2000 with the Houston Rockets, Barkley was one of the leagues most exciting players.
Voted one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history, Barkley was the 1993 season MVP, an 11-time NBA All-Star, a five-time All-NBA First Team selection and one of only five players in NBA history with 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists.
Barkley also won a gold medal at the Barcelona Summer Olympics as part of the original USA “Dream Team” and a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
After his retirement, Auburn University, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Phoenix Suns have all retired his No. 34 jersey.
Since retiring he has earned 3 “Outstanding Sports Personality” Emmy awards for co-hosting TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” authored four books, and founded The Charles Barkley Foundation to provide endowment scholarships to students in the Southeast.
Barstad graduated with a degree in English and has most recently retired as president of Woman’s Health Initiatives for the Medical Devices and Diagnostics sector of Johnson & Johnson after a 23-year career with the company.
Barstad was president of Acute Care for Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc., general manager and director of marketing for the vascular access area of Johnson & Johnson Ethicon Endo Surgery, named co-chair of the Johnson & Johnson Women’s Leadership Initiative.
Barstad was the founding president of the College of Liberal Arts’ Women’s Leadership Institute’s Advisory Council at Auburn University, has volunteered as a Blue and Gold Officer for the U.S. Naval Academy, is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for Liberal Arts and is a Life Member of the Auburn Alumni Association.
Gavin is a graduate in textile management and spent most of his industry years with Columbus Carpet Mills, serving in several technical and managerial positions and rising to vice president of carpet manufacturing before founding MFG Chemical in 1980.
Among his other technical achievements, Gavin was the first to successfully develop acid-dyed filament carpet, which is now the industry standard. He retired from MFG Chemical in 2017 as chairman and CEO.
Gavin was named the 2003 Textile Engineering Alumnus of the Year, was the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Auburn Engineer Award presented by the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council and was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2016.
He has been recognized for a strong history of philanthropy, providing scholarship support to Auburn University since the late 1960s, while also providing active scholarship programs at Georgia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina State, Vanderbilt and the University of Rhode Island. Gavin is a life member of the Auburn Alumni Association.
King is a civil engineering graduate and joined Volkert Inc. as a project engineer in 1960 after being hired by Chairman David G. Volkert. He obtained national recognition for many of the projects he has engineered and managed, such as the Interstate 10 Twin Bridges over Mobile Bay, which was named one of the Ten Outstanding Engineering Achievements of 1978 by the National Society of Professional Engineers.
King was named a Distinguished Auburn Engineer by the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council in 1990 and was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2002. Heis a life member of the Auburn Alumni Association.
Also being recognized by the Alumni Association is Dr. Erica Stringer-Reasor, a 2004 graduate in biomedical sciences. She will receive the Young Alumni Achievement Award, which recognizes extraordinary accomplishments by members of the Auburn Family age 40 and under
In 2015, Stringer-Reasor became a hematology and oncology faculty member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine with clinical interests in breast cancer, women’s health, developmental therapeutics and targeted therapeutics.
She received the Young Doctor’s Summit Award at the 2012 International Gynecologic Cancer Society, the 2013 American Association of Cancer Research’s Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award and the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2014 Young Investigator Award.
Stringer-Reasor is an annual member of the Auburn Alumni Association.
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