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By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
The University of Georgia Press has matured from a small, relatively obscure university press  into one of the country’s best mid-size publishing houses in the 28 years since Karen Orchard came aboard as an editorial assistant.
Orchard, who held most of the key administrative positions at the press en route to becoming director six years ago, attributes most of the improvement to the efforts of her staff and her predecessors. But many admirers say Orchard deserves much of the credit.
“She has provided wonderful leadership that has strengthened the press’s identity and visibility, and made it one of the larger and more important presses in the country,” says UGA professor Betty Jean Craige, whose biography of ecologist Eugene Odum has just been published by the press.
Adds Athens author Philip Lee Williams, whose memoir Crossing Wildcat Ridge was published by the press in 1999: “Karen is a brilliant editor and a joy to work with. Without her, my book would have been twice as long and half as good.”
Orchard has announced her retirement effective Oct. 1, ending a 30-year career at UGA, the only place she’s ever worked professionally. She joined the press in 1973 after working two years in the career planning and placement office, a job she took when she moved to Athens after graduating from Westminster College in Pennsylvania.
Orchard, who earned a master’s degree from UGA after joining the press, has played a role in every step of the press’s rise in stature and quality. She was an editorial assistant just six months before being promoted to assistant marketing manager and then to manuscript editor. She later was managing editor for six years, then assistant director and editor, associate director and executive editor, and interim director before becoming director in 1995. Her duties have run the gamut of tasks in a publishing house. She manages a 28-person staff and oversees a business operation that nets more than $2 million in sales annually.
“Karen has brought an extremely high standard of quality to the press,” says Karen Holbrook, UGA’s provost. “She has kept pace with changes in the industry, and has sharply raised the press’s profile, both within the publishing industry and in the public arena. We will certainly miss her and the excellent leadership she has provided.” |
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