Louis Frank Tompkins Receives Top Volunteer Award

AARP Georgia’s staff recently presented Louis Frank Tompkins with The Andrus Award for Community Service, the organization’s highest, most prestigious volunteer honor, during a holiday celebration in Macon, Georgia. Lester Miller, mayor of Macon-Bibb County, joined the celebration and presented a proclamation declaring December 13, 2024, as Louis Frank Tompkins Day.

The Andrus Award for Community Service is named in honor of Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, AARP’s founder, and given by each of the AARP’s 53 state offices, including Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The award nominations are open to the public and nominees must be individuals, 50 and older, who are sharing their experience, talents, and skills to enrich the lives of others and whose work and achievements reflect AARP’s vision of enhancing people’s quality of life as they age.

Tompkins joins the ranks of Andrus Awardees which include poet, author, and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou, former U.S. Senator and caregiver advocate Elizabeth Dole, and television pioneer and social innovator, Norman Lear.

Tompkins also joins this list of awardees with decades of service including more than 40 years as an educator, holding positions as a teacher, principal, trainer, and coach. He served as a news and sports editor for the Macon Courier and, before Macon and Bibb County’s consolidation, as city councilman for Ward IV, Post 1. Among his many accolades and accomplishments, Tompkins is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Macon Transit Authority.

Tompkins’ cohorts and fellow volunteers call him “a people person who always extends a hand up and not a handout.” He is known as a champion for educational agendas that address issues from full inclusion for the physically impaired to helping students learn current trends and expanding technology. He also works to promote his area’s economic development, poverty and crime prevention, affordable housing, healthcare, and a better quality of life for Middle Georgia’s aging population.