NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, senior adviser for veterans and leadership initiatives at Middle Tennessee State University, was honored by the Middle Tennessee Council of Scouting America with its Outstanding Eagle Scout Award for his 38-year military career and his service to the university.

Huber, who joined MTSU in January 2015, also serves as a distinguished visiting professor and, in 2015, founded MTSU’s Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center, the largest and most comprehensive facility of its kind at a public or private university in Tennessee.

The award is presented solely to Eagle Scouts who demonstrate remarkable achievements well beyond their Scouting endeavors by excelling in their careers/vocations at local, regional, or national levels.

“Scouting taught me that individual skills are a requirement for leaders, and that I needed to meet the expectations of the people I lead,” Huber said. “As I look at the oath of our Scouts — On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, when you look at that, that it is the essence of being a military leader.”

The retired general earned Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Scouting, in 1968, before his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1975. Huber was nominated for the honor by MTSU Trustee and fellow Outstanding Eagle Scout Award recipient J.B. Baker, who also serves as chairman of the council’s Board of Endowment Trustees.

“This is a very pleasant experience to be able to nominate General Keith Huber, who is dynamic and (multifaceted) and deserves this award,” Baker said.

John Bright Cage, former council president, said at the mid-September ceremony honoring Huber and three other award recipients that “this prestigious award is reserved for those whose efforts made a great, positive impact.

— Andrew Oppmann ([email protected])