Rick Looser, President and COO of The Cirlot Agency, was recently awarded one of the top honors bestowed by The University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. He was chosen as the College’s Bert Bank Distinguished Service Award recipient.
“I’m humbled, not only by receiving this award, but by the namesake of the award,” said Looser. “Bert Bank was a war hero, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, and by all accounts, was a communications icon in the State of Alabama for over 50 years.”
Dr. Loy Singleton, Dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, said, “This award recognizes the individual’s service to The University of Alabama, the State of Alabama, and the United States. The award winner this year has provided service on all of those levels over his career.”
Other award recipients included: Ellen East, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer at Time Warner Cable, Inc., who received the Betsy Plank Distinguished Achievement Award; Mark Harris, Vice President of Communications for IBM Global Business Services, who was honored as Outstanding Alumnus in Public Relations; a group of reporters from The Tuscaloosa News’ staff who was recognized as Outstanding Alumni in Journalism for their Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa in April of 2011; and Teri Henley, who received the Board of Visitors Teaching Excellence award.
“It was an honor to be recognized among such an accomplished group of individuals,” Looser said. “It was also great to see such a large group of students receive awards; but I doubt they were inspired by my speech highlighting my choice of public relations as my major, based on the fact that it required no math.”
Looser’s commitment to The University of Alabama has been evident throughout the years. In 2003, he was named Outstanding Alumnus in Public Relations for the College of Communication and Information Sciences. He currently serves on the board of advisors for The University of Alabama’s Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, and is as an adjunct professor, teaching Public Relations Campaigns, the final class required for PR majors.
