Board Chair Craig Mills Receives the Service Above Self Award

The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (MCSF) honored Craig Mills, chair of The Tun Legacy Foundation, with the Service Above Self Award at its 51st annual Philadelphia Gala, held at the Union League on Saturday, April 11, 2026. The award recognized Mills’ lasting impact as a Marine veteran and service to the MCSF, both as chair of the foundation’s Philadelphia Committee, and longtime master of ceremonies for its annual fundraising balls.

Mills has served as a volunteer board member with The Tun Legacy Foundation since 2024, and was named board chair in January 2026. His connection to two organizations with a heritage at the historic Tun– the United States Marine Corps and the St. Andrew’s Society – is what drew him to the project.

While in the Marine Corps, Mills served as an infantry and reconnaissance officer, and he is a Gulf War veteran. For the St. Andrew’s Society – the oldest continuously operating charity in North America, and an organization dedicated to serving the Scottish community – he is a member and past president.

Mills also served as president of the Union League of Philadelphia, where he led the League’s acquisition of the 310-acre Ace Golf Club and Convention Center, now known as Liberty Hill. He also championed the merger of the Union League Legacy Foundation with the nonprofit Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, creating a combined entity – Founding Forward – that provides enhanced civics education to high school students and teachers.

If you attended The Tun Legacy Foundation’s 2024 Marine Corps Birthday Block Party at the future site of The Tun, you may know Mills from his role presenting General Lejeune’s birthday message – reciting it completely from memory. He repeated this role during the 100th Marine Corps Birthday Ball at the Bellevue, presented by Homecoming 250, during the Marine Corps 250th birthday on November 10, 2025.

Most recently, he was instrumental, with the collaboration of his colleagues at his law firm Buchanan Ingersoll, in representing The Tun Legacy Foundation on a pro bono basis resolving a dispute over competing plans to operate a version of The Tun tavern in Philadelphia. The successful settlement included the dismissal of the pending lawsuit and the Foundation’s ability to use the name “Tun” on and within the premises of the Foundation’s planned historic reproduction.

As board chair, Mills is leading the Foundation as it works to finalize funding and begin construction of The Tun®.

At the MCSF’s April 11 ceremony, he was joined by The Tun Legacy Foundation’s founder, Pat Dailey; president, Col. Matt Swindle, USMCR (Ret.); and board member Paul Harvey. The MCFS announced it raised more than $1 million at the Philadelphia Gala to support the educational dreams of children of Marines and Navy Corpsmen.

Please join us in congratulating Craig Mills on this honor.