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Lifetime Achievement Awards Neil Christopher Class of 1955 Dr. Neil Christopher graduated with honors from Auburn in 1955 and received his medical degree at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1958. A U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War and a Bronze Star recipient for meritorious service, he is a family physician in Guntersville. •“Medicine runs deep in my family,” Christopher says. “My grandfather was a rural family doctor in Choctaw County, my brother is a family doctor in Guin and both of my sons are doctors. Being from a rural community, I always knew I would go into rural medicine.” •Christopher helped lobby for state legislation that established the Alabama Family Practice Rural Health Board in 1990 and served as its first chairman. •“I grew concerned with the lack of students going into family medicine,” Christopher says. “Now, 20 slots are reserved at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine for students going into rural family medicine, many carrying scholarships. Both Auburn and Alabama have undergraduate programs for rural medicine.” •Christopher served on the Auburn Alumni Association board of directors from 2004 to 2008 and two years ago was inducted into the Alabama Health Care Hall of Fame.
Ken Mattingly Class of 1958 Astronaut Thomas Kenneth “T.K.” Mattingly of Arlington, Va., graduated from Auburn with a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1958. Afterward, he entered the U.S. Navy and in 1966 enrolled in the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School. •Mattingly played key roles in NASA’s Apollo program and originally was scheduled to serve as command-module pilot for the 1970 Apollo 13 mission but stayed behind due to exposure to German measles. He was a key member of the flight’s ground crew, helping return the spaceship to safety after an in-flight explosion. •Mattingly’s first space flight came in 1972 as the commandmodule pilot aboard Apollo 16. He also was appointed backup commander for the space shuttle Columbia’s second and third orbital test flights and served as commander on the shuttle’s final test flight. Mattingly retired from the Navy in 1989 as a rear admiral and held executive positions at several aerospace engineering companies. He is a recipient of NASA’s Ambassador of Exploration Award and a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Astronaut Hall of Fame, the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.
Forrest McCartney Class of 1952 U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Forrest S. McCartney of Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., entered military duty after receiving an electrical engineering degree from Auburn in 1952. He received a master’s in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1955 and was part of the team that helped return the U.S. to manned space flight following the 1986 Challenger explosion. NASA hired McCartney the following year as director of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. •“After the Challenger tragedy, I let NASA know I wanted to be a part of the recovery of the space program,” recalls McCartney, who served as an engineer and administrator throughout his military career. •NASA waited nearly three years before launching its next space shuttle flight, the Discovery, in September 1988. •“Of course, we were all anxious,” McCartney says. “However, I had a very competent team, and we were confident that we had done what we needed to do for a successful mission.” •Americans waited with baited breath as the orbiter completed its four-day mission successfully, sustaining only minor damage to its thermal-protection system tile. •McCartney retired from NASA in 1992 after 18 more space flights and is a member of the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.
Wayne T. Smith Class of 1968 Wayne T. Smith of Nashville, Tenn., earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Auburn in 1968 and 1969. His plan to pursue a career in education changed when he received a direct commission into the U.S. Army, where he served in military hospitals and pursued a master’s in health care administration at Trinity University. By the time he was discharged as a captain in 1973, he’d decided on the health care industry. •“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” Smith says. “I’ve had the remarkable privilege to see firsthand how quality health care improves individual lives and entire communities.” •A former president of Humana Inc., Smith now serves as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Community Health Systems Inc., the largest publicly traded hospital company in the U.S. Modern Healthcare magazine has named Smith one of the industry’s “100 Most Powerful People” for the past nine years, and Institutional Investor has pegged him as the top health care CEO since 2007. He serves on the boards of Praxair Inc. and 24 Hour Fitness USA Inc., and previously served on the boards of Almost Family Inc., Citadel Broadcasting Corp., the Nashville Health Care Council and the Federation of American Hospitals.
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