LOCAL NEWS
SURPRISE VISIT AT THE HBA BY SPIRIT AWARD ARTIST - JIM FRANKLIN In late June this year, the HBA staff received a buzz at the front door from someone who wanted to come “see the giant eagle.” Unbeknownst to the staff at the time, the request came from Jim Franklin, the artist who was commissioned to design the eagle for the Spirit Award in 1988. Franklin, pictured below with his wife, was thrilled to see the eagle prominently displayed when entering the Association. “For those of you who didn’t attend the Installation Banquet, I don’t know how to describe the majestic eagle by artist Jim Franklin,” says Burr Kannady in the November 1988 edition of Home Building News, then known as the Association Reporter. The 1988 article continues to say that the Spirit Award Committee, then chaired by Kannady, “made sure they had a one-of-a-kind award for the
Pictured: Burr Kannady with the Eagle portrait, 1988
builder who embodies the spirit of ‘Do Business with a Member.’” The first recipient of the award was Rick Martin in 1989. “I really can’t believe it. I’m speechless,” says Martin in the September 1989 edition of Association Reporter. “I am holding the eagle statuette whose life-sized (600 pound) brother is now hovering over the BAMT lobby,” Martin says referring to the Builders Association of Metro Tulsa, now the HBA of Greater Tulsa.
Pictured: Artist Jim Franklin and wife, June 2020
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HOME BUILDING NEWS 2020
