From left, Jim Alexander, BGCA Tennessee Area Council Chair; Jim Morgan, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chattanooga; Rick Montague, Hall of Fame inductee; and Scott Bullington, BGCA TN Hall of Fame chair and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greeneville and Greene County
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Chattanooga announce that Rick Montague has been elected to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tennessee Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Knoxville.
While in College at the University of Virginia, Mr. Montague started volunteering at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chattanooga as a playground monitor. As a young teacher, he became an assistant scoutmaster to an inner city Boys Scout Troop and witnessed firsthand the many challenges faced by low income youth and families. This experience combined with his volunteer time at the Boys & Girls Clubs transformed Mr. Montague and ignited a passion to help underserved youth.
In 1972, his then father-in-law Jack Lupton asked Mr. Montague to join the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chattanooga Board of Directors, and since then, he has been highly engaged with the organization. Mr. Montague was board chair in 1976-78 and again in 2004 and 2005.
“There are 20 Boys & Girls Clubs organizations in Tennessee, all of which have had many board members over the years” said Barry VanDelinder, Jr. board chair of the Chattanooga Club, “and only three or four individuals a year are inducted into the Tennessee Hall of Fame. This award recognizes Rick’s remarkable tenure of tirelessly working to improve the lives of Chattanooga youth.”
Mr. Montague is an alumnus of the McCallie School, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. and
John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. His professional life has always been focused on improving he lives of Chattanooga residents. Early in his career, he was a member of the teaching faculty of the Baylor School in Chattanooga. In the early 1980s, he was appointed the first executive director and president of the Lyndhurst Foundation, and Mr. Montague was also appointed by the city and Hamilton County government to chair the 3-year open process to re-imagine Chattanooga’s downtown and riverfront areas.
Mr. Montague and his wife Cannon live on Lookout Mountain, Tn. and cherish spending time with their children, Tom and John Montague, and Chris and Alexis Chappell. Mr. and Mrs. Montague belong to the Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church.