GMC News

Shelor Appointed by Governor

Governor Perdue Announces Executive Appointments

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today the following executive appointment.

Civil War Commission
Governor Sonny Perdue announced the Executive Appointment of Robert \”Edward\” Shelor, Lieutenant Colonel, USMC (Ret), of Milledgeville, GA, to the Georgia Civil War Commission. LtCol Shelor was nominated for the commission by Senator Johnny Grant based on Shelor’s expertise of the Civil War, record of community service, and military background. The three-year term began in August 2006 and will entail monthly meetings around the state to conduct the Commission’s business.

The Commission was created by the 1993 Georgia General Assembly during Governor Zell Miller’s administration. Its mandate, as spelled out in Senate Resolution 21, is “to coordinate planning, preservation, and promotion of structures, buildings, sites and battlefields associated with this significant period of our common heritage. Recently Governor Perdue moved the Commission to the Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism with the goal of preserving historic sites to enhance historic tourism to the state of Georgia. Shelor stated, “Tourism is Georgia’s second largest industry and historic tourism ranks among the top four reasons tourists come to Georgia. Governor Perdue has rightly guided the Commission toward economic development by protecting those historic sites that help attract tourists to our state. The Commission helps protect our heritage and helps the economy so it is a brilliant win-win strategy for all concerned.”

Shelor is the Chairman of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division and an Assistant Professor of History at Georgia Military College. Prior to working at GMC he joined the U.S. Marines as a private and retired after 24 years of service as a Lieutenant Colonel. Shelor spent the vast majority of his twenty-four years of active duty service overseas in Signals Intelligence assignments. This gave him first-hand knowledge of cultures, languages, and geopolitical realities around the globe.

On numerous occasions, Shelor has visited Civil War battlefields in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, as well as historic sites in Georgia. Shelor also has an in-depth understanding of the weapons used in the Civil War, due in large part to his hobby of marksmanship competition with Civil War period muskets, pistols, and mortars. He has been awarded several medals in live-fire competition with smoothbore and rifled muskets and one in mortars.

LtCol Shelor received the Navy Commendation medal, the Defense Meritorious Service medal from the National Security Agency and the Good Conduct medal from the U.S. Marine Corps. Shelor is a member of the Georgia Historical Society, the World History Association, and the Society of Military Historians. Shelor lives in Milledgeville with his wife, Analyne and their daughter, LeeAnne.