The Jean & Adolph “Bucks” Weil Award recognizes persons or organizations for outstanding service and contributions to the community through the River Region United Way.
2016 Honoree Roger Spain
Since 2007, Roger Spain has been actively involved in volunteer leadership at the River Region United Way. From his early days on the Board of Directors, to his chairmanship of the board in 2012-2013 and his continued engagement today on various committees of the board, Roger has been the consummate professional volunteer.
A 1990 graduate of Auburn University, Roger began a very successful career as a Certified Public Accountant at Aldridge Borden and Company before leaving in 2015 to become the Managing Director of Commercial Banking at Oakworth Capital Bank. Throughout Roger’s challenging professional career, he has always made it a priority to serve others.
Roger is very active in the Montgomery community and is currently the President of the Board of Trustees of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. He’s active with boards at the Britton YMCA, Mary Ellen’s Hearth at Nellie Burge, the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic and was a founding member of the group that organized and developed Clefworks. He is an active member of First United Methodist Church, has taught high school Sunday school for 20 years, has previously served on the church’s administrative board and has coached youth soccer, football and basketball teams.
Roger’s overall impact on the community is immeasurable, but particularly noteworthy has been his service to the River Region United Way. He has been a sounding board for staff members; he has worked as a planner and organizer and he offers keen financial insight and policy suggestions. In short, he’s been fully engaged in almost every aspect of United Way’s work, and his opinions are so valued by members of the staff, that we’ve postponed meetings when Roger could not be present!
Roger has challenged us to think differently and has a gift for taking the pulse of the room on a given topic and then gently arguing the opposing side so we’d be sure to consider every point. And it’s never done defensively, but rather deliberately to make sure we’ve fully evaluated the idea at hand.
In addition to his numerous professional skills, Roger Spain is all about serving other people. He cares about others and what happens to them and he does so with complete modesty and humility. He eschews the limelight and seeks merely to work and improve everything he touches.
The most critical measure of any successful volunteer is whether they’ve helped an organization advance its mission. Did their work make a long-term difference in the effectiveness of the organization? In the case of Roger Spain, that answer is an unequivocal yes! For that reason, we are proud to recognize him as the 2016 Jean & Adolph “Bucks” Weil Award recipient.
