Distinguished service honored

The East Carolina University Alumni Association has named three recipients of the annual Distinguished Service Award and has inducted another individual as an honorary member of the association.
The Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes outstanding and uncommon service to the Alumni Association and the university, will be awarded to Billy Mills Sr. of Jacksonville, N.C., Charles Martin of Greenville and Col. Ellis F. Hall Jr. of Greenville.

Mills is a 1954 ECU graduate, a longtime Pirate Club volunteer, former president of the Pirate Club and an ardent supporter of the university. Martin, class of 1969, is the current president of ECU Parent’s Council. Hall, who received the distinction of honorary alumnus in 1998, is an ECU staff member with more than 20 years at the university. He is also a member of the ECU Medical Foundation Board of Directors.

This year’s honorary alumnus is Keith LeClair of Greenville, ECU’s highly successful baseball coach.

“Our motto of ‘To Serve’ is personified by the character and actions of these four individuals,” said Paul Clifford, associate vice chancellor of alumni relations. “Through their service and dedication to fellow members of the Pirate Nation, they have set themselves apart and that is what we are recognizing with these awards.”

All four honorees will be recognized at the annual Spring Awards Ceremony April 29 at the Greenville Hilton.