By Staff
from staff reports
The late Earl &#8220Buddy” Weaver of Brewton was named a recipient of the Auburn Alumni Association's Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this month.
The alumni association named recipients of its 2007 Lifetime Achievement Awards during a black-tie dinner and induction ceremony March 3, honoring an entrepreneur who helped revolutionize retail checkouts, one of the nation's top Marines, an internationally recognized equine surgeon and a leader in the timber industry.
In addition to Weaver, a 1962 graduate, recipients were C. Harry Knowles, '51, of Moorestown, N.J.; retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Carl Mundy, '57, of Alexandria, Va.; and John Thomas Vaughan, '55, of Auburn.
Weaver, who died in September, capitalized on his timber-rich Alabama region to build a multimillion-dollar business and was one of AU's top benefactors. At the time of his death, he was actively co-chairing the university's largest fundraising initiative, the $500 million &#8220It Begins At Auburn” campaign.
Weaver formerly served as president of the Auburn Alumni Association board of directors, served as president of the AU Foundation board of directors from 1994 to 2002 and served a year as interim vice president for AU's alumni affairs and development offices.
Knowles, founder of Metrologic Instruments Inc., developed such products as the first programmable bar-code scanner, the first handheld laser scanner and the first mini-slot scanner for supermarkets.
At the peak of his distinguished military career, four-star Gen. Mundy served as commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Vaughan, an AU veterinary school graduate, began his teaching career in 1955 at Auburn's College of Veterinary Medicine. He returned to Auburn in 1974 to head the Department of Large Animal Surgery and Medicine. Three years later he began an 18-year tenure as the college's fifth dean, helping establish Auburn as a premier large animal treatment center.