The former mayor will receive a prestigious Bar Association award.

LEWISTON – Former Mayor John Jenkins will receive the highest accolade of the Maine State Bar Association at its annual meeting in Rockport tonight.

Jenkins will be honored for his accomplishments, character and leadership, according to a letter from the Bar Association informing him of his selection to receive the John W. Ballou Distinguished Service Award.

“In recognition of your many contributions to the public good, and in particular your service to the people of Lewiston, the Maine State Bar Association wishes to honor you with the bar’s most prestigious award,” the letter stated.

Past recipients of the award include former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell; William S. Cohen, a former U.S. senator and secretary of defense; Edmund S. Muskie, a former governor, U.S. senator and secretary of state; former Gov. James B. Longley; and former U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Jenkins said. “It’s a great honor, to say the least, to even be mentioned in the same breath” with the past honorees.

“Those folks, in my opinion, have done phenomenal things on a very large scale and I can only hope that this award is not so much for what I have done but perhaps it’s a challenge for me to do better and to do more.”

The Ballou Award honors a Maine resident or native son or daughter who demonstrates qualities in keeping with the aims and purposes of the Maine State Bar Association, a voluntary professional and public service organization that works to advance professionalism and access to justice.

It was named for John W. Ballou, hailed as one of the founders of the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar shortly after his death in 1993 at the age of 67.

Jenkins, 51, a state senator from 1996 to 1998 and Lewiston mayor from 1993 to 1997, has devoted his adult life to community improvement. He recently worked as the development director of the Alfond Youth Center in Waterville.

During the past five years, he also has been a personal and professional consultant to businesses and organizations nationwide, teaching leadership, team-building, sales and sales staff development.

In addition, he taught critical skills at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for 26 years. He has served on several board and panels, including the executive board of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the Glass Ceiling Commission of the U.S. Department of Labor, the Muskie School of Public Policy and the Institute for Civic Leadership.

A native of New Jersey, Jenkins came to Maine 33 years ago and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bates College. He later did advanced studies in city design at Harvard University and in health sciences at Columbia University. He is a member of the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame, the Maine State Sports Hall of Fame and the Lewiston-Auburn Sports Hall of Fame.

The Bar Association’s annual meeting will be Thursday and Friday at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.


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