Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 19, 1995                   TAG: 9509190038
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OF 33,000 EMPLOYEES, HE'S TOPS

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company said Jackson was selected for the top employee award from among dozens of nominees throughout the bank's seven-state and 33,000-employee operation. He will receive the Tenth Legion Award for exceptional leadership and excellence.

It also means a Roanoke-based First Union executive has won the award for two years in a row. Last year, Flora Phillips, executive vice president and consumer bank executive for Virginia operations, became the first female recipient.

Jackson, 51, joined First Union in 1963 as deposit operations manager in Augusta, Ga. He was director of the bank's service center in Atlanta before transferring to Roanoke in 1994.

"I don't have a clue," Jackson said Monday, about who nominated him for the honor, which is decided by the company's top management.

"It's the greatest honor that I've received," Jackson said. "I feel somewhat overwhelmed."

He said the award is due to the teams of employees in Georgia and in Roanoke. Through quality management and with an emphasis on total customer service, he said, the service center on Plantation Road will "get better every day."

Ben Jenkins, president of First Union's Roanoke-based Virginia operations, called Jackson "remarkable for his superior performance and leadership. He is a true leader that grows wherever you plant him. You find superior results whenever you put him between First Union and a challenge."

Harald Hansen, chairman of First Union National Bank of Georgia, said Jackson "is the most unsung hero who could ever be recognized. Success to him is everyone else winning around him."