The Columbus Exchange Club presented Lowndes County native B. A. Atkins with the Andy Morris Book of Golden Deeds Award at the club’s weekly luncheon at Lion Hills on Thursday.
Atkins later joked that if he’d known he would get the award, he wouldn’t have come to the luncheon.
“It feels humbling. I didn’t do all these things to get this,” he said. “I did it for God and country.”
Atkins was born in Caledonia in 1933. He studied business and economics at Mississippi State University and joined the Marine Corp at the age of 18. He was awarded the Purple Heart and received an honorable discharge after being wounded in the Korean War.
The Marine Corps hymn played Tuesday as the shocked Atkins stood to receive his award at the luncheon.
“I wasn’t a hero,” he said to the club when he accepted the award. “The real heroes were men that came home in a box.”
After his military service, Atkins worked for APAC, where he eventually retired as division president, after serving as president of the Mississippi Asphalt Paving Association and working on a legislative committee to improve Mississippi highways.
“This initiative had a major impact on our highway system,” Exchange Club member Betty Clyde Jones, who presented Atkins with his award, said.
Jones also talked about Atkins’ other achievements and services.
He has supported public schools and community sports programs, served on the Board of Trustees at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, and is a member of First United Methodist Church, where he serves on several committees and works with the elderly and teenagers.
Atkins talked a little about serving on committees in his church and working with Sunday school classes, but said the service he performs in church is as much as others do.
He talked more about the time he spends in homes for the elderly. He has spent several years going to local nursing homes and visiting with his friends, as well as meeting new people and spending time with them.
“Some of them don’t have anyone to come see them,” he said.
The Golden Deeds Award is given annually to members of the community who have shown dedication in volunteering and community service, according to Exchange Club member Lee Burdine. Members of the community nominate someone in Lowndes County for the award every year.
“It specifically honors someone in the community that gives a lot of volunteer time who wouldn’t normally be recognized otherwise,” Burdine said.
The Columbus Exchange Club has been giving this award to Lowndes County members since the 1970s. The Book of Golden Deeds Award is the National Exchange Club’s longest running project.
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