Old Dominion presented its Batten Award on Founders' Day to Tim Miller, founder and president of ACS Systems and Engineering, a telecommunications and engineering firm in Virginia Beach.

The university's highest honor for philanthropy, the award was created in honor of Frank and Jane Batten, whose support and guidance have had a profound effect on Old Dominion since 1962. The award recognizes individuals or families who, like the Battens, have demonstrated outstanding charitable responsibility toward the university and whose generosity encourages others to take a philanthropic leadership role.

Miller - and by extension his entire company - has a clearly defined philosophy that giving back to the community is both a responsibility and a privilege.

The company's employees have a remarkable role model in Miller, who is a member of the university's Intercollegiate Foundation board. Among his latest gifts to Old Dominion are two major bequests: $1 million to support the University Village project and the baseball program and a $3 million planned gift, in the form of a charitable trust, for athletics.

In addition, ACS sponsors two $5,000 baseball scholarships each year and underwrites the university's annual Baseball Clinic.