Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes alumni for outstanding achievements in their professional lives, personal integrity and stature and service to the university. Established in 2001, Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are selected by a committee of Auburn administrators, trustees, faculty and alumni and is the highest award given by the association.
2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
We are pleased to announce the four recipients of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Awards (LAA).
R. Douglas Meckes, D.V.M. ’75
Raymond J. Harbert ’82
Sonny Smith
Susan Nolan Story ’81
Meet the 2025 Award Recipients
R. Douglas Meckes, DVM ’75
From the time that R. Douglas Meckes, DVM ’75 set foot on Auburn’s campus, he was a leader. Meckes, a north Alabama native, excelled academically and in leadership roles, including serving as president of Delta Chi fraternity and the Interfraternity Council. He was also a member of The Spades, ODK Honor Society and Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities. Upon graduation from the College of Veterinary Medicine, he began his practice career in Apex, N.C. at the Apex Veterinary Hospital. Ultimately, he expanded the business and operated five other small animal and mixed animal hospitals and an equine practice.
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In 2014, Meckes returned to North Carolina as state veterinarian, managing animal diseases crucial to the state’s agricultural economy. He played a key role during several crises, including outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2015 and 2020 and three different hurricanes.
He served as the commencement speaker for the 2019 College of Veterinary Medicine graduation ceremony and as chair of the Advisory Council of the College of Veterinary Medicine. In 2021, he received Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award, the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Association awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award and North Carolina’s Commissioner of Agriculture recognized him as an ambassador of agriculture.
Raymond J. Harbert ’82
Long before he became CEO of an international investment firm responsible for managing more than $3 billion in assets, Raymond J. Harbert ’82 absorbed the wisdom of then-Auburn University College of Business faculty members James Cox and John Blackstone, among others. “Both were excellent professors who made a difference by motivating and challenging me to work harder on my studies,” Harbert said.
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Other investments in the College of Business include the Raymond J. Harbert Eminent Scholar Chair in the Department of Finance, the Raymond J. Harbert Fund for Excellence Endowment in the Department of Finance and the TIGER Lab, which was remodeled and renamed the Financial Lab in 2022.
After graduating from Auburn with a business degree, Harbert began his career with Harbert International, Inc., a subsidiary of Harbert Corporation. He served as vice president of business development before becoming president of the corporation’s real estate subsidiary, Harbert Properties Corporation. In 1988, he was elected vice president of Harbert Corporation and managed the company’s investment portfolio. In 1990, Harbert gained oversight of the rest of the firm after being elected president and CEO of Harbert Corporation.
In 2006, Harbert was awarded the regional Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Financial Services and was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2015. In 2024, Harbert was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame.
Harbert serves as a trustee for the Robert Meyer Foundation and Children’s of Alabama. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Birmingham Business Alliance and is a trustee emeritus of Auburn University where he served as president pro tempore of Auburn’s Board of Trustees.
He and his wife, Kathryn Dunn Harbert ’81, have three children and nine grandchildren.
Sonny Smith
Sonny Smith is a Hall of Fame coach, broadcaster and ambassador for Auburn University and Auburn Athletics. Originally from Roan Mountain, Tenn., Smith served as a head coach for 22 seasons. He was hired by East Tennessee State in 1976. He coached the Buccaneers for two seasons before leaving to become the head coach at Auburn in the summer of 1978.
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He then coached that team to the Sweet Sixteen of the 1985 NCAA Tournament. He would go on to lead the Tigers to three more NCAA Tournament appearances, making it as far as the Elite Eight in 1986. This streak of five straight NCAA Tournament appearances is the longest in Auburn history. He was again named SEC Coach of the Year following the 1988 season.
Following a losing season in 1989, Smith left Auburn to become the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth University, citing his doubts that he could return Auburn to the success of the previous five seasons. His record at Auburn was 173–154.
Smith retired from coaching at the end of the 1997-1998 season. After retiring from coaching, he joined his friend and former Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson on a sports talk radio show “The Sonny and Wimp Show” on WJOX-AM in Birmingham, Ala. The show ran for more than six years.
In November 2024, Smith announced his retirement from his duties as radio analyst for Auburn men’s basketball games. Smith had been providing commentary on the Auburn Sports Network since 2012.
“After years courtside as both a coach and a broadcaster, it is time to pass the mic and reflect,” Smith said. “That front row seat was more than a job; it was love for the game.”
Susan Story ’81
Susan Nolen Story ’81, grew up in Albertville, Alabama, a first-generation college student who graduated with an industrial engineering degree in 1981. Her career began at Southern Company in 1982, when she joined as a junior engineer with an Alabama Power Company nuclear plant. Over the next 20 years, she served in various management and executive roles within Alabama Power Company and Southern Company Services.
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From 2013-2020, Story served one year as CFO and six years as CEO and president of American Water, the nation’s largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. During her tenure, American Water became the only water utility to become part of the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Utility Average. While leading American Water, she was one of only 23 women serving as a CEO of an S&P 500 company, and she and her team more than tripled the stock price and market capitalization of the company in her six-year CEO tenure. But her most important accomplishment at American Water was reducing employee injuries 63% and decreasing serious injuries by 82%.
Story currently serves as chair of the Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Committee, is a member of the Compensation and Talent Development Committee and the Finance and Risk Oversight Committee for Dominion Energy. She also serves on the board of the Newmont Corporation and Carrier Global.
She is a recipient of the Girl Scouts of America’s Woman of Distinction Award, the Distinguished Auburn Engineer Award and the Outstanding Engineering Alumnus Award from Auburn University. One of her most prized honors was being named an honorary commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, where she flew in an F-15 fighter jet. In 2010, Susan was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame, and in 2018 she gave the keynote address at Auburn’s Spring graduation ceremony.
2024 Award Recipients
Lester Killebrew '68
Emily '64 and Gerald '64 Leischuck
John Watson '60
Carol '86 and Gary '86 Godfrey
2023 Award Recipients
Michael B. McCartney '57
J. Thomas Walter '55
Bobby Lowder '64
Charles D. McCrary '73
2022 Award Recipients
Anita Gentle Newcomb ‘76
William “Bill” R. McNair ‘68
Major James “Jim” M. Hoskins ‘81
Diplomat James R. Bullington ‘62
2021 Award Recipients
Allen Reed '70
Brooks Moore '48
Raymond Elliott Loyd '61
Cecil Stanford Harrell '58
2020 Award Recipients
William E. Barrick ’68
Jere Locke Beasley, Sr. ’59
Joe W. Forehand, Jr. ’71
