Joseph B. Jackson
2005 Staff Recipient
Joseph B. Jackson is the 2005 recipient of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan award from Duke University. This award seeks to perpetuate the excellence of character and humanitarian service of Algernon Sydney Sullivan by recognizing and honoring such qualities in others.
Joe Jackson is the Assistant Director for Grounds and Sanitation for Duke’s Department of Facilities Management (FMD). He has been employed at Duke University for 11 years.
Since the inception of the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership in 1996, Joe has supported the role of FMD in internal support of this major Duke University initiative of civic engagement. He has lent his expertise and the resources of his department to the many grounds improvement projects in the schools, community centers and neighborhoods that are the heart of the NP Partnership. He has helped foster a high profile for Duke University during the entire “Earth Month” activities during April of each year where Duke students, community residents and his staff work together to improve the environment. This year the NP Gattis Street creek clean up was the chosen project for Earth Month. His department’s variety of annual recycling projects and the reuse of waste materials are impressive both at Duke and in the Durham community.
Joe’s volunteer work in the community does not stop with the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership. He has helped college students find their own career paths; he has helped small businesses get traction in the community; he has volunteered with city and county planning for landscape policy and the promotion of clean air technology. He has worked hard to improve care for patients and their families who suffer the ravages of sickle cell anemia and other disabilities; he has fostered respect among the many ethnic and economic segments that make up the rich and diverse fabric of our community. The Durham Rescue Mission, the Residential Home for Abused Women, and Genesis Home have all benefited directly from his time and service.
One of his many nominators wrote the following:
Joe works hard to make Durham a better and more sustainable place to live. He passionately believes that Durham’s children deserve to live in clean, healthy environment, and that each of us has a responsibility to do what we can to leave the world a little better than we found it. He is a quiet hero. He is a rare breed of unsung community champion, quietly demonstrating his strong commitment to an ideal of community service through volunteer participation in the day-to-day work of governance.
Therefore, it is with the highest respect and deepest appreciation that Duke University presents to Joseph B. Jackson the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for 2005.