2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

Gerald S. Leischuck ’64 and the late Emily Reaves Leischuck ’64 of Auburn, Ala., first crossed paths on Auburn’s campus in 1963 while pursuing graduate degrees in the College of Education. Their shared dedication to Auburn’s educational mission is evident in their combined 51 years of dedicated service to Auburn as well as their generous philanthropic activities.

Gerald began his Auburn career as a research associate in the Office of Institutional Research in 1964. He later joined the Office of Planning and Analysis and to serve as executive assistant to the president and secretary of the Board of Trustees.

He was recognized as the College of Education’s 1988 Distinguished Alumnus, and in 2000 he received the Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, his second doctorate degree from Auburn.

Emily taught and held counseling positions at Auburn-area public schools before returning to Auburn University in 1974 as a panhellenic advisor in the Office of the Dean of Women. She later spent 13 years in the office of the president, serving as assistant to the president and board of trustees. In 1988, Auburn named a campus residence hall at the Hill in her honor.

A dedicated servant leader as well, Emily was active in numerous civic and community activities, but none as dear to her as the Lee County Humane Society, where she served on the board of directors for more than a decade.

After they retired, Gerald and Emily vowed to continue their support of higher education. As a memorial to their parents, they established the Leischuck-Reaves Endowment Fund for Scholarships — as well as the Gerald and Emily Leischuck Annual Teaching Awards Program in the College of Education — to bring not only great students to the Plains, but recognize great faculty as well.

Their generosity even extends beyond Auburn, as they have provided scholarship endowments at Birmingham-Southern College, Huntingdon College and the University of Northern Colorado.

While Emily unfortunately passed in 2013, the couple’s legacy lives on in the new students that enroll at Auburn, and other universities, every fall.

After meeting on campus as industrial engineering students, Gary R. Godfrey ’86 and Carol Elsen Godfrey ’86 would embark on a journey of shared passions, professional achievements and dedication to their alma mater.

Gary, a former Auburn Basketball player, spent two successful decades at Accenture as the global managing director of integrated planning and fulfillment. He did management consulting for some of the world’s premier brands, including Walmart, AT&T, Hewlett Packard and Heineken Breweries.

Carol was the senior vice president of products and markets for Southwire’s energy division, helping expand the company’s markets across North America and maintain its presence in the renewable energy industry. She previously served in leadership positions at Hubbell Inc., Alcan Aluminum Corp., Ralston Purina Company and Tampa Electric Company.

After Gary was diagnosed with ALS in 2019, the Godfreys became strong advocates for ALS awareness, raising millions of dollars in support for research. In 2023 Gary and former Alabama football player Kerry Goode, also diagnosed with ALS, raised thousands of dollars through their Iron Bowl Challenge.

In addition to caring for Gary and advocating for ALS research, Carol is a founding member of the 100+ Women Strong engineering program and has been instrumental in the advancement and recruitment of female engineering students to the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

The Godfreys have made significant philanthropic contributions to Auburn, supporting endowments and scholarships as well as the construction of the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management and the Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center.

In times easy or difficult, Gary and Carol have embodied their motto “make today your best day,” and have been an inspiration to the Auburn Family and others around the world.

At just 23 years old, not long after earning his degree in horticulture, Parker Duffey ’06 had a dream. He wanted to provide a way for others to have a fun, easy tailgating experience with as little hassle as possible.

In 2009 he founded Tailgate Guys, whose white tents quickly became ubiquitous not only across the Plains, but around the country. Now known as REVELxp, the company’s more than 800 employees operate an average of 3,000 tailgates every game at 60 universities across the country, forever changing the way people celebrate a football Saturday.

Duffey next founded a sister company, PRE Event Resources, which focused on rentals for large-scale events. In 2020 he sold both companies and founded One Eleven Investments, an industrial and commercial real estate and private equity investment company.

He’s now the cofounder and CEO of the Auburn-based technology company Chptr, an operations platform launched in 2023 that streamlines the functions for Greek Life student organizations through web and mobile applications.

In addition to his prolific work ethic, Duffey serves on the board for SmartBank and for the Sport Fishing Championship, and he was recently named board president for the Boys & Girls Clubs of East Alabama.

An active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, Duffey supports current Auburn students through the mentor program at the Harbert College of Business, Auburn’s Hospitality Management Program, Beta Theta Pi fraternity and Emerge, the student affairs leadership program.

Duffey was a member of the Foy Society for a decade, as well as the Human Sciences Hospitality Management Advisory Board and the Samford Society. In 2015 he was named Harbert College of Business’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2019 he was named a College Sports Power Player by Sports Business Journal.

Seeking to make a difference across the nation, Duffey joined 17 other millennial business leaders on the Millennial Debt Foundation as a commissioner. Together they seek to lead a generational conversation about fiscal stewardship and work toward a framework for long-term deficit reduction.