Accolades: BAA Hosts Awards Luncheon
To see a photo gallery from the luncheon, go to Award Gallery.
By Meg Cullar
About a hundred people gathered at the Hughes-Dillard Alumni Center on Saturday, December 19, to celebrate the accomplishments of two impressive alumni. Family, friends, and Baylor supporters attended a luncheon to honor Melissa Rogers ’88 with the McCall Religious Liberty Award and Kirk Watson ’80, JD ’81, with the Price Daniel Public Service Award.
In her comments to the crowd, Rogers said, “For a lawyer who is a Baylor graduate to receive an award in Abner McCall’s name is just an unbelievable honor.”
Rogers is the director of Wake Forest University Divinity School’s Center for Religion and Public Affairs and as a nonresident senior fellow within the Governance Program of The Brookings Institution.
“I do not consider myself in the company of previous recipients—such as James Dunn and Ed Gaustad,” she added. “I consider this a time of inspiration and a goad to try to carry the torch of religious liberty as ably as they did and do.”
In receiving the Price Daniel Public Service Award, Watson said, “It means a great deal to me to receive an award from the Baylor Alumni Association. So much of what any of us has accomplished is a result of what happened to us on this campus.”
Watson recalled a conversation he had while a Baylor student with his father. Watson wanted to ask his father about finding a “calling,” and his father’s advice came from Romans 12: to find his gifts and use them for the greater good. After choosing a life of service and receiving this honor for public service, Watson said, “I promise I will recommit to my father’s admonition.”
Watson, the former mayor of Austin, is now the Texas state senator for District 14.
Public officials in attendance included Federal Judge Priscilla Owen, former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips, McLennan County Judge Jim Lewis, State Representative Doc Anderson (District 56), 133rd District Judge Jaclanel McFarland, and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy.
