The best of the human spirit

Presenting the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Billy Reid was his daughter Abba Reid Reed, a University of North Alabama alumna in fashion design and merchandising as well as marketing. Abba Reid currently serves as the marketing director at the flagship Billy Reid store in Florence.

“This award is a testament to his lifetime of resiliency, creativity and most importantly, in my opinion, his heart,” said Abba Reid. “He preached that kindness and integrity are truly what matters in life and that success is not tied to what you accomplish, but about how you treat and impact people along the way. That’s something that I have carried with me my whole life.”

In 2024, Billy Reid celebrated his own milestone achievement, as the year marked the 20th anniversary of his founding of the Billy Reid brand — an American fashion house and culture brand based in Florence, Alabama that includes clothing for men and women and exemplifies a spirit of family and integrity. His unique approach to fashion — blending sustainability with artisanship — mirrors the values the College of Human Sciences holds dear, serving as home to the No. 1 Apparel Design and Merchandising program in the South and No. 4 in the nation among public institutions, according to Fashion-schools.org. This, along with Billy Reid’s community building through an annual fashion, food, music and arts festival called Shindig, is what makes him the 2024 IQLA Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.

Billy Reid is a recipient of four Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Awards, making him only one of four designers in the world to have achieved this honor. Reid’s company has 19 retail shops in the United States, an e-commerce business and wholesale specialty store partners in North America, Europe and Asia. The first Billy Reid shops opened in Dallas, Houston and Florence, where the store was in an old home with Reid’s design studio upstairs, highlighting Reid’s value for Southern hospitality.

Despite this current success, it did not come easily for Reid. While addressing those who attended IQLA, he went back to the early 2000’s where he was met with a tough challenge that required strength and courage to overcome. Incredible resiliency was shown by Reid and his family while living in New York City during the 9/11 tragedy. Following the terrorist attacks and the subsequent economic impact, Reid’s first clothing business — William Reid would in turn shut down. Despite the loss, this opened the door for Reid to have a new start in Florence, Alabama — a place closer to his southern roots.

“Going through something like we did with 9/11 it has a profound effect on you and obviously there is a lot of distraught, chaos and PTSD that go along with that but for me, the biggest thing that came out of that was just perspective on life and quality of life,” said Billy Reid. “Afterwards, I said we are going to build an American fashion house and we are going to do it in the south. I felt more comfortable there and could be myself. When you lose so much and then you realize, ‘I didn’t lose anything’ because everything we need is sitting right here (motioning to his wife and three children in attendance). That is what got me through it. We built work around our lives, not life around our work and it has afforded me and my family some amazing opportunities.”

Billy Reid’s influence as a fashion icon can best be seen through his collaborative partnerships as his designs have been worn by stars such as Matthew McConaughey, John Legend, Ryan Reynolds, John Batiste, Leon Bridges, Drake and Scarlett Johansson among others. In addition, he’s collaborated with American Brands Levi’s, Coach, J. Crew, K-Swiss, Gibson Guitar Company and Williams Sonoma.

Andrea Joyce, author and American sports commentator and her husband Harry Smith, veteran TV journalist, presented the IQLA Laureate Award to Hamilton, who they described as a dear friend and someone with a fighting spirit. Hamilton captured the gold medal in men’s figure skating in the 1984 Olympic games in Sarajevo 40 years ago.

“My favorite quote from Scott Hamilton is this one. ‘I think I’ve fallen 41,600 times in my life, and I’ve gotten back up 41,600 times’ and that really is Scott in a nutshell,” said Joyce. “He’s the rare human being who tackles adversity with relentless fighting spirit. It’s not just an attitude, it’s his way of life and it is one that has touched the lives of millions of people, not just in the United States, but around the world.”

Hamilton’s list of accolades is long including more than 70 skating titles, an Emmy Award nomination, induction into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and a member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

His achievements in the figure skating world are highly commendable but Hamilton is most notably known for inspiring others as a cancer and pituitary brain tumor survivor. After losing his mother to cancer and being a cancer survivor himself, Hamilton became an activist launching the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation (Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship). He founded several education and survivorship programs including Chemocare.com and the 4th Angel Mentoring Program. In addition to those programs, Hamilton wrote Fritzy Finds a Hat to help ease the conversation with children about cancer, with proceeds benefitting the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation. Events such as Sk8 to Elimin8 Cancer and An Evening with Scott Hamilton & Friends fund research into treatments that target the cancer while sparing the patient of harsh side effects.

After accepting his award, Hamilton detailed his uphill battles when it came to reaching the pinnacle of his figure skating career and overcoming his cancer diagnosis. Despite the struggles, his overall message to those at IQLA was about embracing the journey and cherishing every single breath and acknowledging the importance of quality of life.

“Especially for the young people in the room, it is really all about the journey,” said Hamilton. “We have to embrace the entire journey because it is a roller coaster and if you want the highest of the highs you have got to accept the lowest of the lows and if you are in the lowest of the lows you have to be working toward the highest of the highs because that’s life. If I never had cancer, I never would have met my wife, Tracie. Here is how God works — I met her on my third anniversary of my diagnosis on the same day. Three years after my diagnosis, I met my wife, and we celebrate every year this date as the best-worst day.”

In their speeches, both Hamilton and Reid spoke of the importance of Auburn University students and the great impact they can make on the world and others. The IQLA Study Tour, another significant component of the International Quality of Life Awards, presents an opportunity for College of Human Sciences students to network with Auburn alumni and leadership and industry leaders, while serving as a ambassadors at the Awards in New York City, and taking in the rich cultural diversity, the arts, fashion and finance.

This year, a total of nine students participated in the IQLA Study Tour, including Kalysta Crawford, a junior majoring in nutrition/dietetics, who shared her personal experience and reasons why she wanted to take part in the study tour.