UA Association Names Distinguished Alumni for 2017

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama National Alumni Association recently named the recipients of their top awards.

The 2017 Distinguished Alumna Award winner is Shelley E. Jones, of Tuscaloosa, and the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award winner is Frederic W. Sington Jr., of Gadsden.

Sington was a member of coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first football team at UA. He earned his bachelor’s degree in commerce and business administration from UA in 1959 and his Juris Doctor in 1962. Sington received his master’s degree in labor law from Cornell University. Following his graduation, he joined his father and brother to work with Fred Sington Sporting Goods Co. The family business was well-known for providing uniforms to sports teams across Alabama.

He has served as president for the A Club Alumni Association, the Golden Fifties Club and three terms for the Etowah County Chapter of the NAA, with which he has an endowed scholarship named after him. Sington also served as president of the NAA from 1983 to 1984.

A Gadsden resident, Sington has served his community as assistant to the mayor of Gadsden for 14 years. He has also served as president of the Alabama Retail Association, the Alabama Aviation Council, Northeast Alabama Red Elephant Club, Northeast Alabama Boys’ Club, Alabama-Mississippi Area Council of Boys’ Clubs and Gadsden Downtown Action Council.

Sington has received various honors including the 2015 Paul W. Bryant Alumni Athlete Award, the Spirit of Citizenship Man of the Year and the Golden Eagle Man of the Year from the Boy Scouts of America.

Sington’s father was honored with this award in 1967, and they are the first father/son pair to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Jones arrived in Tuscaloosa in 1962 as her husband, Thomas L. Jones, became a professor at the UA School of Law. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky in 1961 and a master’s in education from the Capstone in 1966. They are Tuscaloosa residents.

She began her teaching career at Northington Elementary School and went on to become a school principal in Tuscaloosa for 20 years. Following her retirement in 1995, she was appointed to the Tuscaloosa City School Board, where she served for eight years — four of which were as the first woman chair.

Jones has served as a member of the College of Education Board of Advisors, President’s Advisory Committee, Arboretum Board and the Collegiate Advisory Board for Kappa Delta Sorority. She teaches a seminar in the Honor’s College.

In addition to serving on the Tuscaloosa City Schools Board of Education, she has served on the Boards of the DCH Foundation, Community Foundation of West Alabama, Caring Days, the Mayor Maddox PreK Initative and Tuscaloosa Children’s Theatre.

In 1993, Jones was selected as an Alabama National Distinguished Principal and was recognized by the National PTA as Outstanding Educator. She is a graduate of both Leadership Tuscaloosa and Leadership Alabama. In 2007, she was inducted into the Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame and recognized as Tuscaloosa Citizen of the Year.