By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
UGA alumni will renew ties with their alma mater and their former classmates when they return to campus May 4-6 for the annual alumni weekend.
Sponsored by the National Alumni Association, the weekend will include the NAA annual meeting and presentation of the Alumni Merit and Faculty Service Awards. Other scheduled activities include campus tours and open houses, a tour of a private art collection and special recognition of UGA Korean War veterans.
The weekend will honor the class of 1951 on its 50th anniversary. Class members will have a reunion dinner May 5, and will be recognized at other events during the weekend.
The NAA annual meeting will be May 5 at noon at the Athens Holiday Inn. Savannah attorney Frank W. “Sonny” Seiler and his wife, Cecelia Gunn Seiler, will receive the Alumni Merit Award, which recognizes UGA alumni for extraordinary contributions to their alma mater.
The Faculty Service Award, given to active or retired faculty or staff members in recognition of dedicated service to the university and exceptional professional achievement, will be presented to Katheryn B. Davis, retired professor of social work; Conrad Fink, professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication; and Ronald D. Simpson, professor of higher education and science education and acting director of the Institute of Higher Education.
The NAA will also honor Barry Sherman, former professor of telecommunications and director of the Peabody Awards program, who died last May.
As part of the nation’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Korean War, two programs will be held for alumni veterans of the war. On May 5 at 3 p.m., veterans will gather in the Georgia Center for Continuing Education to talk about their involvement in the war. William Stueck, a UGA history professor and authority on the Korean War, will join the group. Larry Knowles, a 1951 graduate who commanded a tank platoon during the war, will show two movies he has compiled using film clips from the time of the war.
On May 6, a memorial service for Korean War veterans will be held at the Wray-Nicholson House, home of the NAA. An Army ROTC honor guard will present the colors, and names of veterans will be read. An ROTC cadet detail will fire a 21-gun salute, and a bugler will play taps.
Alumni Weekend begins May 4 with a tour of the home of C.L. Morehead, a member of the class of 1950. Morehead owns the largest private collection of works by the late UGA artist and professor Lamar Dodd. The tour will be followed by an NAA reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Wray-Nicholson House. A dance sponsored by the Heritage Society and featuring the Laigh Langley Orchestra will be held at Trumps in downtown Athens beginning at 9 p.m.
A tour of UGA’s East Campus is scheduled for 9 a.m. May 5, and a North Campus tour will be held May 6 at 11 a.m.
Some of the university’s schools and colleges will hold reunion events, including awards functions and open houses. Other activities during the weekend include three UGA-Vanderbilt baseball games, UGA’s “Georgia Invitational” track-and-field meet, performances of Dance Athens at the Morton Theatre, and an exhibit of masterpieces by famed modern artists at the Georgia Museum of Art.
Frank and Cecelia Seiler, who will receive the Alumni Merit Award, are owners of Uga VI, the university’s white bulldog mascot, and also owned the five previous dogs. Frank received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1956 and a law degree in 1957.
Katheryn Davis, Conrad Fink and Ronald Simpson will receive NAA Faculty Service Awards. Davis retired last December after serving as a professor in the School of Social Work since 1978 and director of the bachelor of social work program since 1989.
She provided assistance and support to many social service organizations, including the Newton County Hospital and Newton County Day Training Center, the Covington Rape Crisis Center and the Riverside Nursing and Convalescent Center. She was a consultant to the Georgia Association of Housing and Redevelopment, and was a mediator for the University System Board of Regents Consortium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution.
Fink, who joined the Grady College faculty in 1982, is the William S. Morris Professor of Newspaper Strategy and Management and head of the media management department. He is also director of the college’s James M. Cox Jr. Institute for Newspaper Management Studies.
Simpson will retire in June, ending a 40-year career in higher education. He first joined UGA’s faculty in 1972 in the department of science education. He taught several years in North Carolina, then returned in 1981 as the first director of the Office of Instructional Support and Development, helping create the Lilly Fellows and Senior Teaching Fellows programs. |
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