GMC News

Georgia Military College alumni and friends will meet October 22 and 23 to celebrate Alumni Weekend 2010. One of the highlights of the weekend will be the honoring of a select group of individuals with Georgia Military College Alumni Awards. The recipients of these prestigious awards are selected annually from submitted nominations. This year’s award recipients are: Dr. Ernest F. Daniel, Jr. (Distinguished Alumnus Award), Judge Williams T. Moore, Jr. (Alumni Achievement Award), Mrs. Brenda Scott Brown (GMC Service Award), and Sheriff Bill Massee, Jr. (Community Service Award) and Mrs. Frances “Fran” Pardee Usery (Honorary Alumna Award). These five extraordinary people are representative of the fine character and countless acts of excellence displayed by the alumni and friends of Georgia Military College. GMC is fortunate to have been a part of the lives of each of these fine people. The contributions of the 2010 Alumni Award recipients have, without a doubt, made the world a better place. Distinguished Alumnus Award Dr. Ernest F. Daniel, Jr. JC 1937 The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes alumni whose lives have embodied the ideals of Georgia Military College including discipline, moral character, and learning, whose accomplishments have made a conspicuous and positive impression on those who will follow their lead, and whose lives are examples of extraordinary accomplishment. Dr. Daniel was born in Millen, Georgia, where he attended and graduated from Millen Public Schools. In 1936 he came to GMC and then continued his education at South Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern), UCLA, and Emory University where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1940. Next Daniel attended the University of Georgia School of Medicine (now Medical College of Georgia), where he received his Doctor of Medicine in 1943. He served a rotating internship at the Macon Hospital in Macon, Georgia, during 1944. With the outbreak of WWII, Daniel served as medical officer at several naval locations stateside before serving in the Pacific as a Beach Party Doctor in two attack transports and with Marines on Hospital Evacuation L.S.T. He then went on to become Port Surgeon of Saipan and ultimately Chief of Surgery at the Saipan Naval Dispensary. Returning from military service in 1947, Daniel established a General Practice in Dawson, Georgia, moving on in 1954 to become a resident in neurosurgery at the Medical College of Georgia, which included six months at Yale University. He was actually the first resident in this program. By 1960 Daniel had moved into the practice of neurosurgery and continued in this field until the mid-‘80s, though he took time in the ‘60s to attend and graduate from Augusta Law School with a Juris Doctorate. In addition to his active medical practice, Daniel was the Chief of Surgery at Humana Hospital in Augusta and Chief of Staff, and in 1982 – 1983 served as president of the Georgia Neurosurgical Society. He is one of six physicians who founded Doctors Hospital in Augusta. Daniel has also served in a leadership role on numerous boards, belongs to a number of professional organizations, and has been published in several medical journals. Dr. Daniel and Ruby, his wife of 66 years, currently live in Augusta. They have one son, Wayne; one granddaughter, Audra Elizabeth Daniel Tedesco; and three great-grandchildren, Alexandra, Hannah, and Jackson. Alumni Achievement Award Judge William T. Moore, Jr. JC 1960 Judge Moore attended Chatham County public schools and graduated from Savannah High School in 1958. He holds an Associate Degree in Arts from Georgia Military College, with distinction; a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Georgia School of Law; and a Master of Law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. Moore attended GMC on a football scholarship and lettered in both football and baseball. He was team captain of the 1960 GMC baseball team, which won the conference and state championships. He was awarded the Best Barracks Cadet medal and chosen as the most popular cadet by his classmates. During his sophomore year Moore served as E Company Commander. After graduating from GMC, he then attended the University of Georgia on a baseball scholarship where he was a two-year letterman. In recognition of his athletic accomplishments, he was inducted into the Greater Savannah Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010. In his professional career, from 1964 until his appointment to the federal bench in 1994, Judge Moore practiced law in Savannah with the exception of the four years from July 1977 through June 1981, during which he served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. During his tenure as U.S. Attorney, he served on the Advisory Committee for United States Attorney Generals Griffin Bell and Benjamin Civiletti. Since October 1994, he also has served as a United States District Court judge in the Southern District of Georgia and as the District Chief Judge from March 2004 until May 2010. He served on the Judicial Conference of the United States Committee on Criminal Law for six years, was past president of the Eleventh Circuit District Judges Association, and was a member of the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council. He is married to Jane Hodges Moore of Savannah, and they have three children. GMC Service Award Mrs. Brenda Scott Brown The GMC Service Award is designated for an alumnus/alumna or friend of Georgia Military College who has rendered special service to the school or to any of its ancillary organizations including the GMC Alumni Association, the Bulldog Club, the Booster Club, or the GMC Foundation, Inc. Mrs. Brown attended school, married, and had children while living in the southwestern Georgia town of Richland. When their two sons were young teenagers, they moved to Milledgeville and have called it home for nearly thirty years. Her career at GMC began by working a year in the Business Office. She then transferred to the Office of the Commandant and from there to the Student Activities Office, located in the New Academic Building, where she is the Community Service Coordinator. She has just recently received her twenty-five year service pin from Georgia Military College. Mrs. Brown organizes the quarterly main campus blood drives and Georgia Day at the Capital and serves as the Voting Registrar for Georgia Military College. One highly visible occasion supervised by Brown is the annual Make-A-Difference Day, sponsored by the Paul Newman Foundation. GMC has been a participant since 1997 and won the competition in 1999. She organizes Super Wednesday, which introduces incoming junior college students to the campus departments as well as local services. During her time at GMC, Mrs. Brown has seen many students come through her door in need of advice, counsel, and just plain moral support. In this role, she has touched the lives of hundreds of students and is the very first stop for many of them when they come to visit. In addition to responsibilities at Georgia Military College, she is a popular columnist with the Union Recorder newspaper of Milledgeville/Baldwin County, and her stories are published on various Internet websites and have appeared in other Middle Georgia newspapers including the Augusta Focus, the Macon Telegraph, the News Herald, the Stewart-Webster Journal and The Baldwin Bulletin. She is currently the advisor of the Old Capitol News at Georgia Military College. Sharing her community service mindedness with other local organizations, Mrs. Brown was long-time president of the American Cancer Society and continues as an advocate for Relay for Life. She has served on the board of directors of both The Boys and Girls Club and Habitat for Humanity, and she is an active member of Black Springs Baptist Church. Mrs. Brown has been married to Otto for 44 years, and they are the parents of Scott and Kimberly Brown and Arlin and Brenda Brown of Baldwin County and the grandparents of Joshua, Caleb, Catherine, and Christen Brown. Community Service Award Sheriff Bill Massee, Jr. JC 1967 The Community Service Award is given to Georgia Military College alumni who, through leadership, inspiration, teamwork, or hard work in the spirit of volunteerism or in their professional activities, have taken the lessons of GMC’s Character Education beyond the classroom and whose actions are characterized by a history of exemplary service resulting in unquestionable improvements within their community. Bill Massee was born in Milledgeville, where he attended and graduated from Baldwin High School. Massee then received his associate’s degree from Georgia Military College and his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Georgia College. He also graduated from the 208th Session of the FBI National Academy. He was employed as a GBI Agent for 5 1/2 years before serving 2 1/2 years as the City Police Chief in Milledgeville. Massee is currently serving his sixth term as sheriff of Baldwin County, which is the longest consecutive tenure in the history of the county. He is the past president of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association and the past president of the County Officers’ Association of Georgia. He also has served as a member of the Georgia Board of Corrections and on the Peace Officers Standards and Training Council and currently serves on the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association Board of Directors and the Ocmulgee Drug Task Force. Combining his professional career and his community involvement, Massee was instrumental in starting the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program for Baldwin County schools, which began in 1990, and then in 2008 evolved to become the CHAMPS (Choosing Healthy Activities & Methods Promoting Safety) program. The Will Robinson Road Race, begun in honor and memory of Deputy Will Robinson, GMC HS 1987, whose life was lost in the line of duty in 1995, provides funding for this project. Under Sherriff Massee’s leadership, the Baldwin County Sherriff’s Department co-hosts and coordinates this event each November for an increasing number of community participants. Massee is also involved in Leadership Baldwin and Youth Leadership Baldwin County. Additionally, he is a Knight Foundation board member and a member of the Benevolent Masonic Lodge. He is a frequent speaker for church groups, civic organizations, and schools – all of which allow him to also keep a finger on the pulse of those he serves. When one attends an event in the community, it is almost a certainty that Sherriff Masse will be among those present. He watches over Baldwin County citizens as if they are family, and the community’s recognition of his many contributions is certainly evidenced by a six – year consecutive term elected official who holds such a pivotal position. Honorary Alumna Award Mrs. Frances “Fran” Pardee Usery The Honorary Alumni Award is bestowed upon individuals who are not alumni of Georgia Military College, but who have rendered special or exceptional service to the school or to its Alumni Association, and who, by virtue of their service, are worthy of the designation of GMC Alumnus and all that the designation entails. Frances “Fran” Pardee Usery’s love and dedication to Georgia Military College have been strong and persistent since the early ‘70s when she met W.J. “Bill” Usery. Mr. Usery, a 1940 graduate of GMC, has been an active, dedicated and generous alumnus over the past decades, the most recent evidence of which is a new prep school building, dedicated and opened in August, 2010, which bears his name – W.J. “Bill” Usery Hall. Mrs. Usery has worked diligently, encouraging and supporting the dedication and work of Mr. Usery for his alma mater. From him, she grew to understand his love and vision for GMC and began to share that same commitment with him, the most recent occasion being her donation for furnishing the state-of-the art conference room in the new prep school. Growing up on a dairy farm, where “if you didn’t have it, you made do,” taught her to be resourceful and self-reliant, attributes that have served her well all her life. She is proficient in many areas, both professionally and personally, and there are few jobs that she cannot tackle and accomplish in an exemplary fashion, beginning with her becoming an accomplished equestrian as a child and young adult. In her personal life Mrs. Usery is a gifted artist and sculptor. Her most recent accomplishment in the field of sculpturing is the bronze bust of her husband, which was placed in the atrium of the new prep school building on August 5, 2010, at the grand opening of Usery Hall. As described by MG Peter Boylan, GMC president, “This bust is a ‘lovework’ which presents the image of the person for whom this building is named. Having this bronze bust of Mr. Usery will capture and implant his essence in the new building.” Her professional career began with working for Chrysler Corporation as Executive Assistant to the Washington Zone Managers. The competent manner in which she performed job assignments won her the opportunity to travel extensively, and she took many trips to Europe, visiting museums and historical sites, broadening her world knowledge and view. After retiring from Chrysler Corporation in 1988, Mrs. Usery began working as a hostess for a Washington, D.C. gourmet club, hosting dinners for VIP’s in the Washington area’s finer restaurants. It was while she was hosting a VIP event at the Watergate Hotel that she met W.J. Usery. Soon after, she began her own company, providing catering and hosting services for Bill Usery Associates, a Washington, D.C. based firm providing consulting services in matters relating to employee-employer labor relations. Mrs. Usery and her husband, Bill, now reside mostly in Milledgeville, Georgia, where they recently moved into their new lake-front condo. She is extremely happy to be permanently located in Milledgeville where they can continue their efforts to preserve and extend the GMC legacy into the future. ###