Hugh Heflin continues the connection

Photo courtesy of Media Relations Hugh Heflin

   The University of Arkansas-Monticello's Alumni Association selected Hugh Heflin of Monticello to receive the “Continuing The Connection Award” presented annually to the alumnus who “best keeps alive the connection between UAM and Arkansas A&M College.”
    Heflin will receive the award during an alumni homecoming dinner Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in the John F. Gibson University Center. Heflin has been active in the alumni association, is a member of the board of directors of the Boll Weevil Sports Association, and is a former winner of UAM’s Alumni Award for Achievement and Merit.
    “Hugh has always had a special connection to this university and I can think of no one more deserving of this award,” UAM Chancellor Jack Lassiter said. “He has been very successful in a number of business ventures that have taken him a long way from home, but he has always remembered where he got his start.”
    A successful businessman and retired chief executive officer of Belwith International Ltd., Heflin was a star athlete at what was then Arkansas A&M in the early 1950s. An all-conference end for the Boll Weevils in 1951 and 1952, he was named the league’s outstanding lineman as a senior while setting pass receiving records that stood for nearly 50 years.
    Heflin and his wife, the former Betty Davis of Monticello, lived in Monticello from 1953 to 1958 while Heflin coached at Monticello High School. Heflin later coached in Rockford, Ill., before entering business with the National Lock Company as southeast sales director.

    Heflin founded his own sales agency, Medalist Sales-Marketing, in 1970 and later joined Belwith International, first as director of marketing, and later as president of the company.

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