An alumni group at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point canceled an event that would have honored the actor Tom Hanks with one of its most prestigious awards, saying that canceling it would allow the academy to focus on preparing its cadets for the future, according to an email sent by the group’s president.

Mr. Hanks, 69, was set to receive the Sylvanus Thayer Award, which is given annually by the West Point Association of Graduates to an American citizen who exemplifies the West Point motto, “Duty, honor, country.”

The award is named in honor of Sylvanus Thayer, nicknamed the Father of the Military Academy.

The group’s president, Mark Bieger, who is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, said in an email on Friday that the academy “will not be holding the Thayer Award ceremony,” which had been scheduled for Sept. 25.

The decision was first reported by The Washington Post.

“This decision allows the Academy to continue its focus on its core mission of preparing cadets to lead, fight, and win as officers in the world’s most lethal force, the United States Army,” Mr. Bieger wrote in the email.

Former recipients of the award include President Dwight Eisenhower, President Ronald Reagan, Neil Armstrong, Gen. Colin Powell, Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the actor Gary Sinise.

The alumni group announced in June that Mr. Hanks would receive the Thayer Award, citing a career that supported veterans, the military and America’s space program.