You could get an award seat in his name, but the miles would have to come from your account.

I believe that you can only do this over the phone. The online tool to book award seats automatically defaults to the skymiles member's name.

I am a member of AMEX MR points also--my assumption is that when you link a Skymiles account to your MR account, the names need to match. I have not read that anywhere nor have I tried to link a Skymiles account to my MR account that wasn't mine.