>> [MUSIC] I'm positive we got
the worth ethic from our parents because when
you see someone like my father
whose back was broken and who didn't give up.
So I am sure it was just understood
that all of us were going to do our share.
In our family, that was the way it was.
>> Audrey Morgan has done her share and more.
As the 1995 recipient of the
Scott Candler Senior Mr. DeKalb Award,
we honor Audrey for
her accomplishments and contributions to our community.
>> As chairman of the Advisory Board,
our responsibility is to select the Mr. DeKalb each year.
Tonight's honoree is probably the most
deserving of all of those we've chosen over the years.
Audrey has been involved in
more good causes than any person I know.
She's probably raised more money for
good causes in the DeKalb County than anybody I know.
If you want money raised,
you want it done well,
properly organized, well thought out,
call on Audrey, she'll get it done.
>> Audrey's commitment to helping others began at
the age of seven when
her family's home burned to the ground.
Because of the support of friends and neighbors,
the Bailey family was able to
rebuild their lives and move to Atlanta.
>> We come from a large family,
four boys and four girls.
And Audrey, of course,
is very special to all of us and always has been.
She's the best friend I have.
And we have grown up together.
We have all been close and the family stayed together.
But if I had one wish today, I guess,
I would wish for all of you in this room
and anywhere that you had a sister like Audrey.
>> When Audrey talks about growing up,
she never fails to mention her second family,
who proved to be a great influence
on the rest of her life.
>> Because of a series of events that
happened in the Bailey family and in my family,
the Harper family, Audrey came to live with my parents,
about the same time I left
in January to return to college.
So Audrey began to call my parents Paul and May,
and I began to call her my sister.
It's an amazing privilege to have
a close friend for 48 years.
But then even more amazing to have
such a wonderful friend as Audrey.
>> In my early years,
literally, school and church were my life.
That was where I received the grounding for my values.
And then when I went to live with May and Paul,
they not only went to church,
they lived the Christian principles.
So they made a major difference in my life.
In fact, I always said if I could be
half the woman May was, I'd be a success.
>> Audrey had a determination and
a willingness to sacrifice for her goals.
She wanted an education.
First, she wanted to finish high school,
and she had hopes of even more than that.
>> It was because of May and Paul that
Audrey was able to attend college with a scholarship,
and ultimately meet Jack Morgan.
They married in 1950 and
set out to build a future with their two children.
In 1960, Bobby asked
Audrey and Jack to return to Atlanta from Detroit,
and join her in starting
a new company from the ground up,
in an old clear two story brick building
on North Highland Avenue.
Through the years, she's helped our way grow into
the nation's largest independent remanufacturer of
commercial air conditioning and refrigeration compressors.
>> Audrey and her sister together have one of
the great American business success stories
that many people don't know about.
But here you have two women sisters
who have built a major company
in this country from scratch.
Relationship between Audrey, her company,
Our-Way and Copeland goes back some 30 years.
It was easy to tell when I
first met Audrey that she was very
involved and very interested in
her business and in her customers.
But I also learned very quickly that she
was also very interested in people.
Her contributions through the years in
various community volunteer
organizations has been significant.
>> Audrey has gained a reputation as
a consummate business person, a wife,
mother, grandmother, and one of
the strongest volunteer leaders
DeKalb County has ever seen.
>> You have to give back, and actually,
giving back isn't the proper answer
because you can never give back to those individuals.
What you have to do is get forward.
You have to give forward to the next
generation and to those that don't
have the opportunities that
you may have had in coming up.
The other thing I learned is that
anything is possible if you have
the daring and the wherewithal to go out and go for it.
>> I always wanted to help
make other people's life a little better if I could,
and especially in education
because it had meant so much to me.
So as soon as we were able,
we set up a scholarship
for disadvantaged young people
over at Hoke Smith High School,
and that was the beginning.
And then when that became difficult for
us to do on a personal basis,
we put the scholarship with
the Southern Christian Children's Home
and let them administer it there.
>> I first met Audrey in
the early 80s working on
the board at Southern Christian Children's home.
And I remember thinking what an attractive,
shy lady at first,
but I soon found out that
she was definitely attractive but not shy.
And in her dealings
on the board at Southern Christian Home,
she started Children's Week,
which was a week to bring the focus,
I guess you'd say on children who had problems.
She brought that wonderful business sense
that a lot of us didn't have that were volunteers.
>> Many years ago, Audrey and
I both were serving on the Haeart Board.
One morning at an 8:00 o'clock meeting,
Audrey presented a plan for a new fundraiser.
When she finished, she asked for faults,
and I proceeded to do what I really detest in people,
which is to tear down
her idea without giving her any new ideas.
I was really mad at myself and I
decided that morning that if Audrey
came up with a dog fight at the corner of
Briacliff and Lavista, I would help her.
Fortunately, she came up with the Fashion for Heart,
which has just finished its eighth year and raised
over $150,000 for the Heart Association.
>> And Audrey, being the typical go getter that she is,
took that on as her challenge to create not
just a event but the fashion show for Metro Atlanta,
and one of the events for
any charitable organization in Atlanta.
>> As the director for
the DeKalb County Division of
the American Heart Association,
we're so happy that we have Audrey as our honoree
this year for the Scott Candler Mr. DeKalb event.
Audrey has been an outstanding volunteer for us.
The Mr. DeKalb event is perhaps one of
the most important events that we have for fund raising,
and I think that Audrey was
the first volunteer to see that this event raised over
$100,000 when she chaired it for the first time in 1992.
>> Audrey joined the DeKalb Medical Center Board and
also Dekalb Regional Healthcare System Board
in August of 1993.
She's been a real asset to our board.
She admits her limited background
in medical and hospital activities,
but her community and
her business involvement more than
makes up for that lack of
experience when issues at
the hospital and the medical center develop.
And she has jumped right in on many occasions,
and I think it has helped clarify
some of our issues with her outside perspective.
>> I was approached by the Atlanta Olympic Committee to
raise money at the last minute in DeKalb County.
This money raising was critical because the AOC had
run out of money and still had to go
to Tokyo to make the bid presentation.
They asked me to do it, and I said, well,
let me think about it,
and I'll do it only under one condition,
and that is if I can get Audrey Morgan to
actually do it because nobody can do it like Audrey can.
>> Audrey was really the ring leader
of the entire effort.
She really knew how to mobilize people,
and she knew all the key players and in the county.
She knew the people to go to that were like her,
that would make things happen
and make them happen successfully.
>> And Audrey, when you
get involved in something for our way,
that means all of our way gets involved.
I'm thinking perhaps the Olympics
where we raised money for the Olympics,
a committee during the summer of '90,
we wound up working full-time for them for that summer.
And I can think of the American Cancer Society and
the American Heart Association
and all of the involvement you've had and we've had,
but it's all been worthwhile.
>> She personifies what a volunteer should be.
She is dedicated, organized, efficient, very effective.
Any board that she has ever
served on is delighted to have her,
and whatever services they
can get from her, they will take.
>> She's a real organized and focused.
She usually has an agenda and a schedule.
That's one real strength that she has.
The other strength is she
knows an incredible number of people,
and has worked with and has
a personal and professional relationship with Audrey.
>> Audrey is such a humble person.
Even though she has accomplished so much in her life,
she probably still can't believe that anybody really
would want to recognize her for a distinction like that.
>> She has that wonderful way of asking without begging,
and making you feel that
you're important in that project,
and therefore, the project is going to be
successful if you feel like you're necessary to it.
>> I'm always amazed at how well organized Audrey is.
She never seems to get flustered about anything
and follows up on every detail.
And I like to think of her as being a role model for me,
a professional woman who has
managed both her family and her profession,
as well as her volunteer experiences
which were important to her.
>> On behalf of DeKalb County's, 577,000 citizens,
I want to thank you for everything that you
continue to do to make our county the very best.
You're a true partner,
not only with the business community,
but with government, and
the many organizations that you've helped.
You have made DeKalb County the very best.
Your energies are what everyone admires so very much.
>> We know that you care, that you get involved,
that you solve problems.
I've discovered why no one can turn you down when you put
the arm on your friends to
help with this activity or that,
because you never turn others down.
And so on this night of recognition
for you, and yes for Jack,
I'm proud to add my voice of
appreciation for all you have done
for this county that I've been privileged to
call home for 25 years.
I'm also pleased that your civic leadership
has been recognized for your many years of efforts.
Congratulations, Madam First Citizen, and thank you.
>> A lot of the miracles
there are because of volunteers like you and
me out there working and raising the funds.
When I believe in something very strongly,
it gives me the ability to do
or to save whatever I need to.
And so watch out.
If I believe in it, I'm relentless.