Bench & Bar November/December 2025

COLUMNS

Alumni Award Recipients Hall of Fame COLLEGE CELEBRATES AND

T he University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law recently held its 2025 Law Alumni Association Hall of Fame and Alumni Awards reception at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. The Hall of Fame was established to acknowledge graduates and former faculty of the college whose extraordinary profes sional success and contributions, profound positive influence on the college, and high degree of character and integrity are recog nized by their peers. Inclusion in the Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed by the college. The follow ing individuals were inducted into the 2025 Hall of Fame: Garvice Kincaid, Gary D. Payne, John M. Rogers, and Penny Warren. In addition to the Hall of Fame induction,

the Law Alumni Association presented the 2025 Alumni Awards to Mark P. Bryant (Professional Achievement Award), Laken Gilbert Albrink (Community Ser vice Award), Jennifer Jackson (Young Professional Award), Thomas Wingate (Dis tinguished Jurist Award), and Hank Jones (Legacy Award). Hall of Fame inductee GARVICE KIN CAID (Class of 1937) was considered one of the most successful businessmen in Ken tucky history before his death in 1975. In 1945, he became the youngest bank pres ident in Kentucky at the age of 32 after he and some colleagues acquired the majority interest in Central Bank & Trust Company in Lexington. In 1959, he purchased control of Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company and took it from the relative obscurity of a small,

regional insurer to one of the nation’s larg est life insurance companies. At the time of his death, Kincaid was chair man of the Board of Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company; held controlling interest in 20 banks in Central and East ern Kentucky; and headed the Lexington law firm of Kincaid, Wilson, Schaeffer and Hembree, and several enterprises engaged in consumer finance, real estate, and radio and television broadcasting. Hall of Fame inductee GARY D. PAYNE (Class of 1979) practiced law in various capacities in Lexington before becoming the first Black judge in Fayette County after his appointment to the Fayette District Court bench in 1988. He later served as a Fayette Circuit Court judge from 1994 until 2006, including holding the role of chief judge from 2002 to 2003.

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