Jack Duncan, recipient of the 2007 SMA Sustained Outstanding Service Award

The Southern Management Association is pleased to announce Professor W. Jack Duncan of the University of Alabama at Birmingham as the 2007 recipient of SMA’s Sustained Outstanding Service Award (SOSA).  This award is given to a member who has consistently helped SMA reach its goals through elected, appointed and volunteer services and through extraordinary contributions. 

The award was presented at the 2007 SMA meeting in Nashville by the 2006 SOSA winner, Bob Ford of the University of Central Florida.  In presenting the award, Professor Ford stated:

“One of the great joys that comes from winning this award is that you get the opportunity to introduce the next year’s winner. This is a special pleasure for me because this year’s SMA Sustained Service Award winner is a long time dear friend and colleague who I also greatly admire and respect.

“I have known and worked with this person for over 25 years. He has been a faculty member in my department when I was the chair at UAB, a member of my editorial team when I was editor of AME, a co-author and a trusted advisor and confident. In all of these roles I have come to think of this person as the ‘go to’ guy who you can always count on for good advice, professional excellence and thoughtful judgment. Every academic department, university, journal, and professional association needs ‘go to’ guys to be successful. Today, SMA gets to honor one of the best I have ever known.

“For over 39 years, this man has been a ‘go to’ guy for SMA. He has held every office you can get elected to and most all of the other ones where SMA has needed to find that one person who could be counted on to do a great job. From a session chair, to a paper reviewer, to doctoral consortium organizer to president, every time his name was called, he came and did what he was asked to do with excellence, a genuine caring for others, and a deep passion for this organization and our discipline.  I consider this person a role model for what it means to be a management academic professional, and I know that those many people he has worked with, mentored, and helped over the years will enthusiastically agree. He is a masterful teacher, an accomplished academic, a dedicated professional, and a really fine person. It is my honor to present to you my friend, Jack Duncan, as the 2007 SMA Sustained Service Award winner.”

Please join us in congratulating Jack for his many years of service to the Southern Management Association.