piedmont college journal fall 2014

JOURNAL FALL 2014 | Volume 7, Number 2

Student Village underway

President James F. Mellichamp

Vice President for Advancement Amy Amason

Director of Special Projects and Community Relations William S. Loyd

Director of Public Relations David Price

Graphic Design Specialist Regina M. Fried

Director of Development Justin Scali

Associate Director of Development Mary Colston

Associate Director of Alumni Relations Katie Porter

Coordinator of Development Services Debbie Zimmerman

Website Coordinator Brian Carter

Published by the Office of Institutional Advancement

Send Address Changes to:

Piedmont College Institutional Advancement P.O. Box 429 Demorest GA 30535

or

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Piedmont College @PiedmontGA

JOURNAL

F E A T U R E S

FALL 2014CONTENTS

02

N E W S

06 Students

09 Programs

14 Outreach & Impact

16 Highlights

24 Athletics

28 Alumni Spotlights

32 Class Notes

35 Obituaries

It takes a Village

A new Student Village is going up at the Demorest campus with 12 apartment-style residence halls.

12 Dr. Camp marks 31 Years

Biology professor Dr. Carlos Camp came to Piedmont in 1983 and is still on the search for elusive new amphibians.

22 Athens goes country

An urban garden in Athens has students tilling the soil and learning a thing or two about pumpkins.

30 The long road from Nepal to DemorestPrakash Silwal (’89) has roamed the world working for humanitarian aid agencies.

FALL 2014 | THE PIEDMONT COLLEGE JOURNAL 1

This time of year, as we approach Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I am especially grateful. Like the Stage Manager in Our Town, I marvel at the talents, artistic beauty and exhilarating creativity of our Piedmont students, faculty, staff, and friends. I know you share my affirmation of Wilder’s sentiment: “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

This issue of the Journal recounts many of the treasures of Piedmont College, highlighting our urban garden in Athens; our award- winning forensics program; our business students presenting stellar work to professionals in Las Vegas; and our winning student athletes, who make us proud on and off the field. You can also come to know some of our outstanding faculty, like Carlos Camp and Tharinia Robinson.

We count our many alumni and friends as treasures of Piedmont College; whether it is Bill Gaik, who helps lead the Friends of the Arts organization; Bill and Bob, the generous benefactors of the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum; or our alumnus Prakash Kant Silwal (’89) who makes us proud as he serves the world in international development.

The excellence found here streams across all disciplines and campuses and this edition of the Journal recognizes but a few of our many achievements. Join me in celebrating our shining treasures—the encouraging examples of community at Piedmont College.

Dr. James F. Mellichamp

We Give ThanksWhen I look out my office window in Demorest, I’m reminded of the little village featured in Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town. Set in New England, the play features the day-to-day activities of its families, and often revolves around the tiny Congregational church—not unlike the setting of Piedmont College in Demorest and the historic Cobbham neighborhood that embraces our Athens campus.

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

2 THE PIEDMONT COLLEGE JOURNAL | FALL 2014

It Takes a V

Dirt began to fly Oct. 14 for the Student Village, a residential project at the Demorest campus that will include 12 apartment-style buildings housing up to 180 additional students.

Board Chairman Thomas A. “Gus” Arrendale and President James Mellichamp led a work crew of Piedmont, Demorest, and Habersham County officials at a groundbreaking ceremony for the project, which will be located just off Historic Highway 441 on the Demorest-Mt. Airy Highway. Construction on the project is expected to be complete by July 2015 in time for students to move in for the following fall semester.

In addition to the dozen apartment buildings, the project will also include retail space for six to eight stores, adding restaurants and other amenities, Mellichamp said. “This project

EXPANSION


allows us to offer additional options for students living on campus along with our traditional dormitories,” he said. “The apartment-style housing is especially attractive for older students and married students. “

Each of the 12 new buildings will be two stories, with four apartments each. Each of the apartments will include four bedrooms, two baths , and a kitchen. Juneau Construction Company of Atlanta is in charge of the project.

Bed space is at a premium at Piedmont this year, with the nine residence halls now housing a record 604 students.

The need for additional space is expected to increase with the completion next year of the new Student

Commons, which is now under construction at the Demorest campus on Georgia Street

across from Wallace Hall.

The groundbreaking crew for Piedmont’s new Student Village included representatives from the college, City of Demorest, Habersham County, the Chamber of Commerce, and Juneau Construction Company.

Construction of student apartments gets underwayillage


Your gift.Many returns.

The Annual Fund is vital to the success of Piedmont. It helps support the college as you know it—small classes, faculty interaction, convenient campus with amazing facilities, and a high-quality education in a small-community atmosphere. You can choose to make a gift to the area of greatest need or to the department or program of your choice. To give a gift, please use the enclosed envelope or visit us online.

i For more information on how you can support Piedmont College, please contact Mary Colston, Associate Director of Development at [email protected] or 706-778-8500 x1149.

Join us here!

www.piedmont.edu/giving

Rhani Lott ‘05 Lisa Bond M’01, Ed.S’07

Dr. Kara Keel Moody ‘94

Mike Barden ‘77 Pamela Getman ‘12


Alumni EventsDave and Buster’s (Duluth) Gwinnett Alumni Event Thursday, December 11th, 2014 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Alumni Weekend Demorest CampusApril 10-12, 2015

Terrapin Brewery Athens Alumni EventThursday, April 16th, 20155:30pm- 7:30pm

Piedmont College Singers ConcertPeachtree Road United Methodist ChurchMonday, April 20th, 2015 7:30pm

Have you seen the new Piedmont website? Then check it out! Visit www.piedmont.edu for information on what is happening on campus in academics, athletics, and fine arts, and for news about upcoming alumni events. You’ll also find links to help you stay connected through Piedmont social media, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.

Piedmont College on the Move!Look for this icon for alumni events in your area!

Visit www.piedmont.edu/alumni-events to stay informed on upcoming alumni events


A record freshman class and full residence halls marked the beginning of Piedmont’s 2014-15 academic year.

At the annual Convocation to welcome the Class of 2018, Dean of Admissions Cindy Peterson said this year’s freshman class of 273 students is the largest in the college’s 117-year history. President James

Mellichamp also noted that for the first time, the college had more than 600 students living in the Demorest residence halls.

“They are also academically strong, with an average high school GPA of 3.44,” Peterson said. “They represent one of the most talented, engaged and diverse groups of students, and they include veterans, first-generation college students, Nickerson Congregational Heritage scholars, and a number of international students. Many are student athletes and performers in the fine arts. During summer orientation they were challenged to view their education at Piedmont as preparation for them to thrive by creating habits of mind and spirit that will continue to develop beyond their undergraduate years. I believe they are all up for the challenge.”

Peterson said 15 percent of this year’s class is from outside of Georgia and includes students from Florida, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Connecticut, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia. International students on campus this year come from Nepal, China, Colombia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. One student from Germany is from Paderborn University, which recently created an exchange program with Piedmont.

This year’s Convocation featured as guest speaker the Rev. June Boutwell, the Designated Conference Minister of the six-state Southeast Conference United Church of Christ. Boutwell, who became a minster after a career in accounting and finance, told the new Piedmont students, “You will have many memories of your time in this place, and you will have stories to tell of people who begin to shape your thinking and values and life experiences. From fellow students, faculty and staff, from the president to the maintenance staff you will encounter, I just hope you don’t …forget to enjoy the small things in life that can provide laughter, relationships, and memories.”

‘Enjoy small things’Convocation welcomes the largest freshman class yet!

STUDENTS

(Above) The Rev. June Boutwell delivered the Convocation address.

Jeremy Douylliez (’13) presented the “Charge” to the incoming Class of 2018, including a warning not to “absent-mindedly reach for a water bottle in Dr. Al Pleysier’s class.”


move-in madnessFALL

The Class of 2018 at 273 strong is the largest freshman class in Piedmont history. Above, Garrett Pagan helps his brother, Grant Pagan, and Adam Weisheit move in to Purcell Hall. The two freshmen are among the more than 600 students now living on campus in Demorest.


GAB Scholarship for Owensby Senior active in radio, TV, and print in Mass Comm

Jessie Owensby, a senior mass

communications major from Gainesville,

was one of five college students across

the state to earn a $1,500 E. Lanier

“Lanny’ Finch Scholarship from the

Georgia Association of Broadcasters.

Owensby is involved in all areas of mass

communications at Piedmont, serving

as the news director for the student

station WPCZ and features editor for The

Navigator. She also works in a variety of

roles for the radio and TV show “Sound It

Out” and the TV show “PC Today.”

Business students ‘hit a home run’ in Vegas Research project finds rapt audience at bank convention

Most Piedmont students know the pressure of presenting a capstone presentation to a panel of faculty, but imagine that your presentation is being eyed by some 200 hard-nosed bankers—in Las Vegas.

That was the experience Blake Stewart (’14) of Hartwell and junior Austin Brick of Winter Park, Fla., found themselves in this past May, when they were asked to present their economic research to a convention of bankers and bank examiners.

As part of a class project, Stewart and Brick, both business majors in the Walker School, examined how a variety of economic indicators might correlate—or even predict—a bank’s loan losses. They worked with Mainstreet Technologies, which is headquartered in Atlanta and has offices in Cornelia, to look at indicators ranging from oil and gold prices, Standard & Poor business data, and the interest rate on Treasury bonds. The study covered some nine years of data.

“What we found was that some indicators were predictive and some were not,” Brick said. “Some that were intuitively considered to be [predictive] were not.”

Dr. John Misner, Executive Vice President and Dean of the Walker School of Business, said such information can be valuable to banks, especially as it affects a value known as the Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL). That value, which is carefully scrutinized by bank examiners, in turn determines how much capital banks must keep in reserve.

Mainstreet Technologies produces software systems to help banks monitor their ALLL. When the study was finished, co-owner Dalton Sirmans asked Stewart and Brick to present their findings at the Las Vegas convention.

“We were overwhelmed at first, but it was nice to finally show our work to people who deal with that sort of thing every day,” Brick said. “It also made me add a concentration in finance to my major. “ After their presentation, they were asked by a South Carolina bank to prepare a similar study, he said. Brick and another student, Nick Green of Acworth, are now working on that project.

“These guys hit a home run,” Misner said of their presentation. “The room included about 180 senior level bankers and bank regulators, and the bankers were giving our students their business cards.”

I N S P I R I N G


Jessie Owensby, a senior mass communications major from Gainesville, was one of five college students

across the state to earn a $1,500 E. Lanier “Lanny’ Finch Scholarship from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters. Owensby is involved in all areas of mass communications at Piedmont, serving as the news director for the student station WPCZ and features editor for The Navigator. She also works in a variety of roles for the radio and TV show “Sound It Out” and the TV show “PC Today.”

As professor for the new major in forensic science at Piedmont, Dr. Tharinia Robinson likes to get one thing out of the way first

off: “It’s not like you see on TV.”

Forensic science has made a quantum leap in popularity in recent years with the success of televisions shows that feature forensic scientists or crime scene investigators as the stars. At last count, there were three NCIS shows and spinoffs and four CSI variations, including next year’s CSI: Cyber.

Robinson said that while the shows have made her popular at parties, people are disappointed to find out they bear little connection to the real world of forensic science. “On TV the process takes 60 minutes, but it is not like that in reality—it may take months. And the equipment they have doesn’t exist. The GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) machine can’t do DNA analysis like on TV.” But Robinson said the biggest misconception is more sartorial. “We don’t wear expensive clothes.”

Still, Robinson says the current popularity of forensic science in the media has helped attract students to

the field, and once they get a taste of the real thing, she thinks they will like it.

“Students like the hands-on activities, such as fingerprint collection or fiber analysis. It is not required, but it is what sets our program apart from other programs,” Robinson said. The Piedmont forensic science program also includes crossover classes from the criminal justice major. “Most people think criminal justice and forensic science are one field, but they are not,” she said. “They intersect, and that is why our forensic science majors take the Introduction to Criminal Justice class.”

Originally from Kingstree, S.C., Robinson earned a BA degree in criminal justice from California State University, San Bernardino, a master’s degree in forensic science from National University in San Diego, and a PhD from Capella University. She has more than 20 years experience in crime lab work, including 11 years with the California Department of Justice Crime Lab in Riverside, Calif. There Robinson worked as a handwriting analyst in cases involving forged documents.

Robinson joined the Piedmont faculty last year as a professor in the criminal justice program, and this year she began

teaching the first classes in the new forensic science major. Robinson said the opportunity to teach came just when she was looking to move back closer to her family in South Carolina. “California was starting to get too expensive, and I wanted to get away from the freeway traffic. I chose Piedmont because it wasn’t in a big city and it was a great ground-floor opportunity. I wanted to teach and I thought I could bring some field experience to the students.”

Not As Seen On TVNew Forensic Science major brings CSI to campus

Dr. Tharinia Robinson shows Marjorie Hammond of Stone Mountain how to dust for fingerprints.

PROGRAMS


Leadership Studies provides path to graduation

Hybrid-online class for students with some college credit

A new undergraduate program this fall allows students who already have some college credits to earn a degree through a mix of online and classroom instruction.

The bachelor of arts degree in Leadership Studies includes concentrations in Health Care Leadership, Communications, Organizational Leadership, and Human Behavior. Students enrolled in the program select two of the concentrations, which are offered through both the Demorest and Athens campuses.

“The unique aspect of this major is that it will be taught online and with a classroom element,” said Dr. Perry Rettig, Vice President for Academic Affairs. “This type of hybrid-online course provides the best of both worlds when it comes to face-to-face instruction from professors and the convenience of working from home,” he said.

Rettig said the program is designed especially for students who may have already earned a two-year degree or have completed some courses toward a four-year degree. “Students often have to leave school for a variety of reasons, and getting back into the college classroom can be difficult when you are working. This program meets a real need to provide non-traditional students a path to graduation with a BA degree that can boost their careers,” he said.

In the hybrid-online classes, students meet on campus for two classes and complete the rest of their assignments through online interactions with the professor and their classmates. “The students and Piedmont professors work through the material together during the semester, with interaction and feedback comparable to a classroom setting,” said Dr. Steven Nimmo, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Depending on their previously earned credits, students will complete general education classes, including science, social science, math, and English, as well as interdisciplinary studies.

Cindy Peterson, Dean of Admissions and Undergraduate Enrollment Management, said the Leadership Studies major is generally a two-year program, depending on the hours of credit that applicants already have. Students in the program may also receive a variety of college credits through the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) and Experiential Credit program.

For more information about the new program visit www.piedmont.edu/LS.

Cindy Peterson

Alumni Office offers help for career advancement “This program is comprehensive, but you can pick and choose just the parts of it that you need...”

Looking for a job or looking for a career change? The Piedmont Alumni Office has teamed up with the Office of Career and Counseling Services to offer a free program that will help you do just that.

Jobs 4 Grads Now is an online program that includes 10 steps to take you from the early stages of deciding the best job for you and then helps you land that job. With a large library of articles and videos, the program covers everything from writing a killer resume to how to leave a professional voice mail message. The program also helps you keep track of where you have applied and reminds you when a follow up call may be in order.

“This program has been available to (Continued on Page 29)

Katie Porter


of nursing in higher education, Scott said. The second program, an MSN with emphasis on nursing administration, prepares nurses to assume top-level management positions in a variety of settings throughout every sector of the health care industry.

Scott said the courses are designed to make it easier for working nurses to attend. “Much of the course content is delivered online, and students generally meet for one and a half hours once a week, or three hours every other week,” she said.

Master’s Programs for Nurse Administrators and Educators

For nurses who want to take the next step in their careers as either administrators or educators, Piedmont

College has added its first Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program.

The R.H. Daniel School of Nursing and Health Sciences at both the Demorest and Athens campuses now offers two Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) programs, said nursing school Dean Dr. Linda Scott. The graduate programs are designed for nurses who have already earned a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree, she said.

The MSN with an emphasis on nursing education prepares nurses as clinical educators for health care facilities and provides the background for entry-level teaching

Scott said the MSN degree may be completed in two academic years by attending full time, or in three academic years part time. For more information, contact Scott at [email protected], or call 706-778-3000 ext. 1218.

Piedmont’s Daniel School of Nursing was founded in 1998 and enrolls some 150 undergraduate (BSN) nurses each year. Graduates currently have a 97.8 percent success rate in the Georgia NCLEX-RN exam.

Dr. Linda Scott, Dean of Piedmont’s R.H. Daniel School of Nursing.

Athens BSN students hold summer pinning ceremony

New BSN graduate Caitlin Byrd Briscoe following the Athens pinning ceremony.

Laurell Barton-Smith receives her nurse’s pin from Dr. Linda Scott.


FACULTY SPOTLIGHT


Herpetologist Camp marks 31 years teaching biology Literally wrote the book on Georgia amphibians

Growing up “all over the state” as the son of a Southern Baptist minister, Dr. Carlos Camp got to know the snakes, lizards,

turtles, and amphibians of Georgia at an early age. And, not surprisingly, a lot of those critters would follow him home.

“Our house was a zoo,” Camp said. “When we were in south Georgia, big water snakes were easy to find. I had a couple of brown water snakes that were pushing five feet—that is large for a water snake.” While his parents tolerated most of the creatures, they did not like snakes. But other “herps,” as the reptiles and amphibians he collected are known, were fair game, and his dad would frequently add to the collection with box turtles he found while traveling the state’s back roads.

That early interest in all things herpetological led to Camp’s longtime career as a biology professor at Piedmont and his reputation as one of the Southeast’s leading experts on amphibians, especially salamanders.

Camp attended high school in Hawkinsville, below Macon, and at Palmetto High School south of Atlanta, where he graduated in 1973. He then entered Georgia Southwestern College in Americus as a biology major specializing in herpetology, and while there published his first research paper on water snakes in the Georgia Journal of Science. Camp did his master’s studies, also on water snakes, at Auburn University, working with well-

known biologists Dr. Robert Mount and the late Dr. George Folkerts. After graduating in 1980, he began working on a PhD in biology at the University of Georgia under Dr. Whit Gibbons, now professor emeritus of ecology at UGA.

At UGA, Camp switched the focus of his studies from water snakes to one of their favorite prey animals, salamanders, and earned his doctorate in salamander ecology in 1985.

While most folks think of salamanders as shy creatures that spend their lives under rocks, they actually exhibit remarkable behaviors, Camp said. For their size, salamanders are fierce predators that will eat anything they can catch, from tadpoles to bumble bees. They are also territorial, and unlike most frogs, which lay eggs and abandon them, salamanders are known to guard their clutch of eggs like a mother hen.

While working on his PhD, Camp answered an ad for a biology professorship at Piedmont College and joined the faculty in 1983, taking over the biology lab on the second floor of what is today Camp Hall. (At the time, Camp Hall was known as King Hall.) “I not only was chair of the department, I was the department,” he said with a laugh. “Now we have five biology professors.”

Piedmont is ideally located for the study of salamanders, as the mountainous intersection of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee supports one of the largest diversity of salamander species in the world, Camp

said. In Georgia alone there are some 60 species, ranging in size from two inches to the 30-inch “hellbenders” that occasionally startle trout fishermen, to the giant four-foot amphiuma of south Georgia.

One of the first research projects that Camp and his Piedmont students began was a study of the ecology of the common black-bellied salamanders—sometimes called spring lizards—that inhabit streams across northeast Georgia. Dr. Rick Austin (’90), now a biology professor at Piedmont, was one of those first students. Over a period of years, they collected enough data to show that what biologists thought was a single species was actually two separate species living in close proximity. Camp and Austin named the new species Desmognathus folkertsi after the professor they had both worked with at Auburn University.

Camp said a number of current Piedmont students are involved in advanced undergraduate research projects involving salamanders. Kaitlin Norman of Martin is studying ways that salamanders use chemical cues to avoid predators; while Emily Benfield of Clarkesville and Rajvee Vagani of Loganville are studying the physical differences in two species of two-lined salamanders.

College students across the state who study (Continued on Page 29)


Athens conference gets a new focus

The Lillian E. Smith Symposium on Arts and Social Change

After seven years, the annual Piedmont Conference on Religion and the Liberal Arts is taking on a new name and a new focus on social justice. The conference, which will be held at the Athens campus on March 14, 2015, will be called the Lillian E. Smith Symposium on Arts and Social Change.

Piedmont Chaplain Dr. Ashley Cleere, who organized the first conference in 2008, said the recent gift to Piedmont of Smith’s former home in Clayton created the opportunity to broaden the reach of the annual conference. “Smith’s family home is now maintained by Piedmont as an educational center and artists’ retreat,” Cleere said. “With the addition of this asset and Smith’s vision for social justice, it seemed fitting to marry the strengths of the Religion and Liberal Arts Conference with Smith’s legacy to create a new forum to discuss ways we all might impact the world we call home.”

Lillian Smith, who attended Piedmont in 1915, was a writer, activist, humanitarian, and proponent of the arts who lived most of her adult life near Clayton. She is best known for her novel Strange Fruit, and memoir, Killers of the Dream,

in which she examined race relations in the South before the 1960s civil rights movement. “Throughout her career as a writer and humanitarian, Lillian Smith examined how the arts engage people around issues of social injustice, segregation, and isolation,” Cleere said. “With the launch of this symposium, Piedmont is privileged to engage current and future generations around the values and convictions that shaped the life and work of Lillian Smith.”

The inaugural symposium will set the stage for storytelling that challenges participants not only to contemplate sensitivities and struggles surrounding race relations but also to initiate social change in their own spheres of

influence. The moderator for the symposium will be Barbara Brown Taylor, Butman Professor of Religion at Piedmont College and acclaimed author of 13 books, including the New York Times bestsellers, Learning to Walk in the Dark and An Altar in the World.

More information about the upcoming symposium is available at www.piedmont.edu/symp.

Save the Date! The first Lillian E. Smith

Symposium on Arts and Social Change will be

held at the Piedmont Athens Campus March

14, 2015. The title is from Smith’s speech, “The

Right Way is Not a Moderate Way,” in which

she said, “The question in crisis or ordeal is

not: Are you going to be an extremist? The

question is: What kind of extremist are you

going to be?”

What kind of an extremist

are you?


UCC Southeast Conference meets in DemorestAmong the regional and national church bodies with whom the College enjoys an affiliation is the Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ, which held its annual meeting on the Demorest Campus June 19-21. More than 120 UCC clergy and laity from around the Southeast participated. A key element of the conference was the installation of the Designated Conference Minister, the Rev. June Boutwell, who was also the Fall Convocation speaker. Pictured from left are the Rev. Linda Jaramillo, Executive Minister for Justice and Witness Ministries for the national office; Valerie Tutson, a storyteller from Rhode Island; the Rev. Felix Villanueva, Conference Minister of the Southern California-Nevada Conference, and the Rev. Boutwell. “The occasion enabled members of related churches to get acquainted with the College,” said Piedmont Chaplain Ashley Cleere. “It also provided faculty, staff, and students the chance to learn more about the United Church of Christ. It was fitting that a conference minister was installed in the Piedmont Chapel, since the Rev. Frank Jenkins served in a similar denominational capacity prior to becoming Trustee and eventually President of Piedmont (1910-1930) and facilitated the College’s affiliation with Congregationalism.”

OUTREACH & IMPACT


Carly Haraka


After operating for a number of years strictly online, Piedmont’s student-run radio station is broadcasting its signal again, finding a wider local audience and letting the “personality” of Piedmont shine through, says station manager

Carly Haraka.

WPCZ officially began broadcasting in June at FM 98.7, and while it is considered a low-power station by the FCC, the signal reaches a large percentage of Habersham County residents from Clarkesville to Cornelia.

Before it went online, student station WRFP broadcast an AM signal that covered only the Demorest campus, said Dale Van Cantfort, chair of the Mass Communications Department. “The signal was actually carried through the electrical wires, so if you were too far from a building, you could not pick it up,” he said. With the advent of Internet “radio,” WRFP could be heard around the world, but only via computer.

When the FCC began opening up new low-power broadcast frequencies that could cover a larger area, Piedmont applied for a license, which was granted last year. Unfortunately the letters WRFP were now being used by another broadcast station, so students adopted WPCZ as the new call sign.

Now the station is on the air again with a mix of student-produced news, talk, and music shows that can be heard

within a five-mile radius of the campus. WPCZ can also still be heard online, so parents and friends can follow their favorite student broadcasters from afar.

Haraka, a junior mass communications major from Cumming, worked with the online station last year and said she likes the fact that the station is broadcasting over the airways again. “We get a lot more feedback from students, and we want the students to listen and be involved,” she said.

But Haraka said there are also more responsibilities, and as a broadcast station, WPCZ must abide by FCC rules. “They have rules about foul language—not that we did that before—but now you can be fined $10,000.” As station manager Haraka must also keep detailed logs of broadcast shows for the FCC.

Students currently produce all of the programming for the station, including everything from talk shows to music that runs the gamut from country, to pop, rock, and alternative. The station airs about eight live shows each week.

“We want more students to be involved,” Haraka said. “It is only going to grow from here.”

(WPCZ can be heard at www.piedmontroar.com/wpcz. Piedmont station WPPR, a Georgia Public Broadcasting station, broadcasts at 88.3 FM and can also be heard online at www.gpb.org/wppr.)

Piedmont’s ‘personality’ is back!

Back on the Air

HIGHLIGHTS


July graduates include first Houston County new alums

Dr. Kathy Breithaupt (center) with graduates from Houston County, including, front from left, Sandy Claxton, Eliza Morales, Tammy Morrow, and Kelli Sherwood; back, Rebecca Walker, Debra Johnson, and Ginny Adsit.

July Commencement ceremonies are always a little more festive, perhaps because the graduates can finally enjoy their summer vacations. That was especially true for 88 teachers who earned masters and specialist degrees as part of Piedmont’s first off-campus program in Houston County just below Macon.

When it was formed in 2013, the Houston County group of K-12 teachers working toward their graduate degrees was the most distant of all Piedmont’s off-campus programs.

To conduct the weekly classes that far south, several professors drove the seven-hour roundtrip so the students could meet after work. Classes were held in Mossy Creek Elementary School in the small community of Kathleen near Warner Robins.

“But if anybody had second thoughts about our foray into uncharted territory—or the time, effort, travel and expense to pull this off, the impact of our involvement in Houston County is only beginning to be felt,” said Dr. Don Gnecco, Dean of the School of

Education. “We now have almost 100 teachers in southern Georgia who know first-hand about Piedmont College. Many of these folks are parents, and many are high school teachers who, of course, have the opportunity to mention Piedmont to students who are thinking about where they might like to go to college. Two of the Houston teachers have been accepted into our doctoral program.”

The Houston County group was (Continued on Page 29)


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1 Jeb Edwards (center) with parents Kenneth Edwards (’77) and Theresa Burnett Edwards (’78) of Social Circle

2 Mark Pulliam of Colbert, Jessica White of Watkinsville, and Michael Chaudoin of Easley, S.C.

3 Graduates make a last-minute mirror check before marching.

4 Never too early to set new goals!

5 (Left to right) Athens BSN graduates Haley Simmons of Athens, Sarah

Barton of Jefferson, Annah Kaye Hardin of Watkinsville, Carolyn Weldon of Athens, Shelby Graessle of Maretta, Caitlin Byrd Brisco of Monroe, Katherine Deardorff of Athens, and Chelsea Cote of Roswell

6 Jana Johnson-Davis of College Park is excited about her EdS degree.

4


1 Zachary Grizzle and Pearl Oppenheimer in Sweet Charity.

2 ( Left to righ) Oliver Merritt, Ben Ciss é, Jacob Passmore, Lydie Koffi, Nicholas Johnson, Fletcher Deal, Tyler Dale in 9 to 5: The Musical

3 Hannah Thomas, Jessica Williams, Shelby Whitehouse, Caroline Harmon, Brandon Deen, Chelsea Gittens, Jamie Doublet, Melanie Cassiday, Hannah Ritter, Shelby Myers, and Shavandra Thompson in a scene from Sweet Charity.

4 Britt Hensley and Ben Cissé in Taming of the Shrew.

5 Ben Cissé terrorizes the servants, Fletcher Deal, Jessica Williams, Pearl Oppenheimer, and Brittany Sharer in Taming of the Shrew.

Theatre

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1 The Piedmont Camerata, a new chamber ensemble, presented a concert Aug. 24 in the chapel. The group includes, from left, Heather Strachan, violin; Rachael Fischer, violin; Jeri-Mae Astolfi, piano; David Peyton, cello; and Megan Chisom Peyton, viola. They performed works by 19th century composers Gabriel Fauré, Joaquín Turina, and Antonín Dvořák. The ensemble will perform again at 4 p.m., May 31, 2015.

Music 2 The 2014 edition of Cantabile includes (front) Chastin Dobbs, Cole

Martin, and Kate Berardi; back: Mitchell Auger, Megan Holder, Elizabeth Parmer, Jennifer Pitt, Ben Rikeman, Albert Gerring, and Wallace Hinson. The a cappella ensemble will perform a Spring Concert at 5 p.m., April 7, 2015, in Brooks Hall.


Athens goes a little bit country Demorest is the Piedmont campus in the rural area, right? Then why are Athens campus students busy weeding, watering, and harvesting a bumper crop of pumpkins? You can thank the Athens Outdoor Club, which built an urban garden behind the gymnasium on an empty patch of land just off Hill Street. The club built several raised beds and planted a crop of corn, pumpkins, okra, and peppers, said Zach Churchill, Director of Student Services in Athens. In addition to learning a lot about urban agriculture, the club members were left with some pretty respectable pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns. Pictured lower right are Sage Meneses, a freshman psychology major from Alton, Ill.; Beth Heller, a freshman nursing student from Marietta; Zach Churchill; Nick Petry, a sophomore business major from Fayetteville; and Patrick Hendrix, a senior business major from Atlanta. When not tilling the soil, the Outdoor Club can be found hiking, rafting, or cleaning up their adopted road, Cleveland Avenue in Athens.


Music and art have always been a big part of life for Bill and Carolyn Gaik. Bill played the trumpet in high school and the piano “a little bit,” but most of all he loves to sing. Carolyn is a painter and photographer.

So when they moved to The Orchard north of Clarkesville in 2002, Bill was intrigued to find out several of his neighbors sang in the Piedmont Chorale. “They asked me if I wanted to join them, and I’ve been singing ever since,” he said.

The Chorale is Piedmont’s 100-voice community choir, made up of singers from across the northeast Georgia area. The ensemble performs with an orchestra twice each year in the annual Great Composers Concert, and the Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols.

Bill had retired after a career in business consulting in the Atlanta area, and Carolyn was retired as a systems analyst. Together they soon focused some of that organizational energy on Piedmont’s fine arts program, helping to found Piedmont Friends of the Arts, which acts as a booster club for the art programs.

Friends of the Arts was formally organized in 2011, but its roots go back a few more years, Bill said. It began with a lunch he had with music professors Wally Hinson and James Mellichamp, now president. “Originally the idea was for a Friends of Music,” he said. “But in

talking with them it soon morphed into Friends of the Arts, because Piedmont has three really wonderful fine arts programs, the visual arts, music, and theatre.

From that initial start, Friends of the Arts has grown each year and now has some 80 members. “I’m a big believer in programs that bring a lot of people together to give a small amount each

year,” Bill said. “That way your base grows each year.”

This school year, the Art, Music and Theatre departments will present more than 40 events on campus, including exhibits by regionally and nationally noted artists, musical performances by

student ensembles and touring professionals, and a variety of student plays. Each of these events is enhanced by the donations made by the members of Friends of the Arts. The group assists students in a variety of ways, from helping to pay for tours by the Piedmont Singers, to bringing top-rated performers and artists to the campus.

“When I first met Bill and Carolyn, I could tell they were passionate about the arts,” Hinson said.

“But they’ve also been the source of some great ideas that are helping our programs grow. They really do embody what it means to be a Friend of the Arts at Piedmont.”

For more information or to join Friends of the Arts, contact Katie Porter at [email protected], call 706-778-3000 ext. 1329. Or visit www.piedmont.edu.

FRIENDS OF THE ARTS

Bill and Carolyn Gaik

President James Mellichamp with Carolyn and William Gaik at a recent Friends of the Arts reception.


Athletes earn Conference and national academic awards

While the wins pile up on the field, Piedmont student-athletes continue to excel in the classroom, as well, topping the USA South Conference and winning academic awards from two national coaching organizations.

In just its second year as a full member of USA South, Piedmont placed 189 students—more than any other school—onto the Academic All-Conference Team. LaGrange College was in second place with 130, and Huntingdon close behind in third with 126. To be eligible for an Academic All-Conference award from the USA South, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.0 GPA in each of the two semesters of the year.

In an even tougher competition, 143 Piedmont athletes were named to the college’s Athletic Director’s Honor Roll at the end of the spring 2014 semester. Winners must earn better than a 3.4 GPA to make it on to the list, and 42 students earned a perfect 4.0 for the semester.

The women’s volleyball team also was singled out for honors, earning the Team Academic Excellence Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). The award is the fifth straight under head coach Sid Feldman and the ninth year in a row for the Piedmont program.

The AVCA award honors teams with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.30. In all, only 123 NCAA Division III women’s programs across the country received this honor, and Piedmont was one of only two USA South members to make the cut.

Not to be left out, the men’s basketball team earned a top academic rating from the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC). Among the nearly 1,200 teams in all three NCAA divisions and the NAIA, Piedmont was among the approximately 125 schools to earn a Team Academic Excellence Award with a team cumulative average GPA of 3.0. Piedmont was the only team in the USA South Conference to earn the distinction.

Individually, Patrick Steck (’14) was named an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winner, one of only 29 male athletes selected from across the country for the spring sports. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes in their final year of intercollegiate competition who excel both academically and athletically. The Kingsland native was a standout for the Lions’ tennis team for four years and a member of the Phi Sigma Iota foreign language national honor society. Steck is the second Piedmont tennis player to receive the award, the first being Sebastian Stanescu (’05).

Patrick Steck


FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS

Andrew gets 100th career coaching victory

Women’s soccer coach Stephen Andrew notched his 100th career victory in a 7-0 shutout of USA South foe Mary Baldwin College on Oct. 11.

The win moved Andrew to an overall record of 100-46-6 and a .749 winning percentage in his seventh season leading the Lady Lions soccer. Coming into the season, Andrew ranked 52nd among active Division III coaches across the country and reached his 100th win in 152 games, the second fastest to the century mark among D-III coaches.

Andrew is no stranger to wins on the Piedmont soccer pitch. Before beginning his coaching career, Andrew was a four-year All-American for the men’s soccer program from 2000-2003 under then head coach Jason Smith. The Falkirk, Scotland, native still holds the school’s all-time career record for goals at 114, and he is one of just three players in the history of NCAA Division III to tally more than 100 goals in a collegiate career. Andrew was also named the Conference Player of the Year an unprecedented four times, earning the honor in each of his four seasons as a Lion.

Men’s soccerWith one game in the season left to play at press time, the Lions are having their best year since 2011, with a record of 7-10 overall and 4-5 in the USA South Conference. Pictured is defender Matthew Metzger, a freshman from Auckland, New Zealand.


For the latest updates on Piedmont athletic action, go to www.piedmont.lions.com

Women’s Cross CountryThe Piedmont women finished their regular season Oct. 18 and at press time were headed to the USA South Conference championship meet on Nov. 1 in Greensboro, N.C. Pictured is Rachel Tolliver, a senior from Loganville.

VolleyballThe volleybal team has five matches to go before their USA South Conference championships to be held

in Martinsville, Va. At press time the Lady Lions were 18-10 overall and 9-4 in conference play. Pictured, freshman Randee Harvel of Newnan goes up for a kill at the Greensboro College Invitational.

Women’s Cross Country The women’s cross country team includes, from left, Harley Palmer, Isabella Brown, Rachel Tolliver, Carrie Ruis, Megan Lawhead, Rajvee Vajani, Tiffany Murrillo, and Andrea Bell.

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FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS

Men’s Cross CountryThe Piedmont men had their best result of the year at the Greesnboro Invitational, where sophomore Cody Parker was the top D-III runner and the team led all D-III schools. Pictured are Brandon Singh, Bryce Thorson, and Esteban Salazar.

Women’s soccerAs they turn their attention to the USA South championship tournament in Martinsville,

Va., in November, the soccer women are 13-4-1 overall and 9-1-1 in conference play. Pictured is freshman Cecilia Davis of Stockbridge in a match against Salem College.

Men’s Cross CountryThe men’s cross country team includes, front from left: Cody Parker, Alec Jameson, and Brandon Singh; and back: Bryce Thorson, Esteban Salazar, Cory McClung, and Rily Passini.

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Alumni golf Tournament A successful year at the Coach Cave Memorial Golf Tournament

The Cave Memorial Golf Tournament is a time to renew old aquaintences, as Coach O’Neal Cave’s daughter, Kathy Baker, and Pat Taylor (’71) can attest.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS

The 26th annual Piedmont College Coach Cave Memorial Golf Tournament held at the Orchard Golf and Country Club May 30 raised more than $4,500 for scholarships and the athletic department. The tournament is named for the late Leon O’Neal Cave, who served as a coach and athletic director at Piedmont from 1948 to 1983.

Posting a score of 56, the winning team for the scramble tournament included Richard Stansell of Lawrenceville, Ken Delay of Millen, Mike Roeser of Flowery Branch, and Scott Pryor of Sugar Hill. In second place, also at 56 were Jared Patterson of McDonough, Robert Baker (’01) of Locust Grove,

Michael Salmon of Flowery Branch, and James Patterson of McDonough.

Third place went to the team of Bob Elrod, Marilyn McNeely, Dave Thomas, and Jim Carboy all of Clarkesville, who also shot a 56. In fourth place at 58 were Mike Speed of Homer and Charles Jordan, Bryon Kennedy, and Trent Peeples, all of Toccoa.

“On behalf of the Coach Cave Tournament Committee we appreciate all of the sponsors, supporters and volunteers that make the event possible,” said Justin Scali, Director of Development at Piedmont.

Reid (’59) and Deloris Mullins (’58) of Dacula were at the golf tournament with their grandchildren Parker and Perrin Clavijo.


(Continued from Page 13) herpetology are also familiar with Camp, who is one of three editors who produced the encyclopedic Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia, which describes in detail all of the known Georgia species. John Jensen, a senior wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, served as the editor in chief, while Camp was editor for the amphibians section, and Gibbons edited the reptile section. Matt Elliott with the DNR mapped the range of each species.

Camp says there are probably many more species of salamanders and other amphibians out there in the Georgia woods waiting to be discovered. “The day after the book went to press, Bill Peterman, then a graduate student at the University of Missouri, was in Stephens County and found a salamander he could not identify.”

(Continued from Page 10)Piedmont juniors and seniors, and we are very happy to now offer it to all of our alumni as well,” said Katie Porter, Associate Director of Alumni Relations. “Best of all, it normally would cost $99 for a year’s subscription, but we are making it free to our alumni. “ For information on how to sign up for Jobs 4 Grads Now, visit the Piedmont website at piedmont.edu/career-services.

“This program is very comprehensive, but you can pick and choose just the parts of it that you need,” Porter said. “For example, alumni may want to skip the first couple of steps and go directly to creating a resume or how to conduct a telephone interview.”

Herpetologist Camp Marks 31 Year Teaching Biology

He brought the specimen to Camp, who determined it was not only a new species, but represented a new genus of salamander. Now known as the patch-nosed salamander, the tiny two-inch creature was the first new genus of four-legged vertebrate animal discovered in the U.S. in more than 50 years.

Camp said the study of salamanders and other amphibians is important because they can be indicators of the overall health of a given environment. Amphibians live in moist areas and breathe through their permeable skin, so they are particularly sensitive to pollutants in the air or water and other changes in that environment.

So the next time you find a slippery salamander under a rock, resist the urge to go fishing with it. “That’s a sin,” Camp said.

Alumni Office offers help for career advancement

July graduates include first Houston County new alums

(Continued from Page 19) organized by Dr. Kathy Breithaupt, Senior Fellow in Education and Director of Off-Campus Graduate Studies. Breithaupt said three more classes including another 56 graduate students are ongoing in Houston County.

Before an off-campus program can begin in any county or school system, it must be approved by the local school superintendent, Breithaupt said. “It is all about reputation of the program.” In Houston County, the superindent at the time was Dr. Robin Hines, who had formerly been a high school principal in Jackson County and so was familiar with Piedmont’s School of Education. “Dr. Hines says he always liked to hire Piedmont grads because they were always well prepared,” she said.


Prakash Silwal The long road from Nepal to Demorest

Prakash Silwal’s life has taken many twists and turns, but the biggest came when he ran into some school friends one day.

Born in the small town of Ganeshal, Nepal, Silwal attended school in the capital, Kathmandu, until his 12th year, when he studied in India. It was near the end of this last year of school that he found out several friends had been accepted to attend a college in northeast Georgia called Piedmont.

“I thought, well my grades are better than theirs, I want to go, too!” Silwal said. So he called Piedmont’s admission director, the late Jody Burton. “About a week later I called him back, and he said I could start in January 1986.”

It was, to say the least, a long journey. “I traveled on Pakistan International Airlines from Kathmandu to Karachi,” Silwal said. “From there it was a Pan Am flight from Karachi to Frankfurt and then to New York and Atlanta. Then I took the Trailways Bus from Atlanta to Demorest, which dropped me on Highway 441, right on the footsteps of Daniel Hall!”

“I was awed by the setting of the college, the environment, and the people,” Silwal said. He remembers the day well, because of the weather. “It was snowing, and I had never been in a snow.” Although northern Nepal is home to the snow-covered Himalaya mountains, southern Nepal, which is at

about the same latitude as Florida, rarely gets below freezing.

Silwal lived in Purcell Hall and later roomed in a house on campus. He was interested in biology, and one of the first

professors he met was the new biology professor, Dr. Carlos Camp (see Page 13). “ I remember there were many great professors, Silwal said. “Rob Wainberg came in 1988, and there was Lu Elrod for chemistry. [Garren] Simmons was president, and the current president, James Mellichamp, was a music professor. I had Buzz Singer and Dr. Pleysier for history.”

After graduating in 1989, Silwal went to work at BASF in Seneca, S.C. “They really needed chemical engineers, so I began taking classes in chemistry at Piedmont and also enrolled at Clemson University.”

In 1994 he graduated from Clemson with a master’s degree in environmental toxicology.

Even before he graduated, Silwal went to work with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control in Columbia. “But my parents were getting older, and so I moved back to Nepal,” he said. Shortly after returning to Nepal, Silwal

A long career with international relief agencies has taken Prakash Silwal (’89) to countries across the mideast and Africa. Here he visits an outdoor cobbler in Bamyan, Ahfganistan, for a little shoe repair.


met and married his wife, Vijaya, in 1995. Just a week after their wedding, he moved back to the U.S. to begin work on a PhD focusing on large reptiles—crocodiles and alligators. He first spent several months studying the blood chemistry of the giant reptiles at the San Diego Zoo with noted crocodilian expert Dr. Valentine Lance. He and Vijaya then moved to Miami, where he enrolled at Florida International University.

In 1996 Silwal was back in Nepal to do field work on the native mugger and gharial crocodiles. But when he was offered a job with the Nepalese government as an advisor for the Natural Planning Commission, Silwal said he put his PhD on hold and “I left academia and toxicology and went into development.” He spent the next 10 years

working on the construction of a hydroelectric plant in Nepal. Then in 2005 Silwal shifted gears again and began the first of three management jobs with international humanitarian organizations. It was work that would take him all over the world aiding some of the planets poorest inhabitants.

In 2005 he joined Mercy Corps, a Portland, Ore., organization that sends development workers into areas affected by natural disasters and wars.

Over the next five years, he worked in Nepal and Pakistan and then spent five years in Afghanistan and a year each in Sudan, India, Bangladesh and Yemen. Since then, Silwal has also worked for CARE International and Save the Children. In each of these positions, he managed a variety of programs, including vocational training programs, disaster preparedness, large-scale nutrition programs, and agricultural development. Most of Silwal’s development work has been in “non-family stations,” which means he could not bring his wife, or their two children. “We would normally work 10 weeks and then have two weeks to return home,” he said.

In September, Silwal left Save the Children and is now back in Kathamandu with his family. “I am home now, taking a break and reflecting on what should be my next move,” he said, perhaps a return to academia

as a teacher. Whichever new path his life takes, Silwal said it will be the continuation of the journey that began at Piedmont in 1986. “I just want to say ‘Thank you’ to [former president] Dr. Walter and Dr. Mary Lane,” he said. “And to [former Trustee] James Hobbs. Without his financial support, it would not have been possible to complete my degree.”

Prakash and his wife, Vijaya, in Bamyan, Ahfganistan.

At the Blue Mosque of Mazar-E-Sharif, Afhanistan, Prakash feeds the famous white doves, which have called the mosque home since it was built in the 12th century.


Gary (’69) and Mary Stephenson (’68) just wanted to send a “very special hello to everyone at great Piedmont—and GO LIONS!”

1 Jeanne M. Williams (’71) of San Francisco recently celebrated her 90th birthday. Pictured with Jeanne and one of her paintings is President James Mellichamp; her son, Dr. Rusty Williams; and granddaughter Hannah Williams.

Trudy Garrett Ayers (’73) of Mt. Airy announces the birth of her first grandchild, Gracie Elizabeth Hubbard, Sept 6, 2014.

2 Conley Cathey (’73), of Dallas, Texas, formerly of Cornelia, retired in May 2014 after 58 years in the telecommunications industry. He joined Standard Telephone Company in 1956, and his career took him from Georgia, to Maryland, and finally to Texas, where he served as president of CHR Solutions. Conley and his wife Linda, with another couple, started their own telecommunications consulting company in 1986 prior to merging with Hicks & Ragland Engineering Company and forming CHR Solutions.

3 Marty Chapman (’77) of Oklahoma was on vacation with her daughter at the Eagle’s Nest near Berchtesgaden, Germany, when she spotted someone with a PC Lions jacket. She asked if it stood for Piedmont College in Demorest, and—small world—it was Austin Pearson, a current junior and a member of the basketball team. Marty was a cheerleader and baseball statistician while at Piedmont.

Donald Hitt (’80) of Culpeper, Va., was recently elected vice president of the Virginia Catholic Forensics League, selected to represent Virginia as a national delegate to the National Catholic Forensics League’s Fall Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and re-elected State Treasurer of the Virginia Association of Speech, Debate and Drama Coaches.

Jonathan Cantrell (’81) of Clarkesville has been named interim CEO of Habersham Electric Membership Corporation (HEMC). Prior to his appointment, Cantrell was the Data Warehouse Program Manager for HEMC. He has been with HEMC for 12 years.

Scott Kersh (’90) of Alto has been named assistant principal at Habersham Central High School.

Michael Williams (’91) of Danielsville has been named assistant superintendent of the Madison County School System. Michael is also president of the Piedmont College “P” Club.

Terry Hill (’01) of Tallahassee, Fla., was re-appointed to the Florida State College of Law Alumni Board and the FSU College of Law Student Recruitment Committee.

Sarah Bates (’02, MAT ’04) of Gillsville retired in May after teaching in the Hall County Schools since 2005. She began teaching in Clarke County and taught literature to advanced/gifted eighth graders for the past four years. Sarah is now teaching as an adjunct professor with the Piedmont College English Department.

4 Nicole Whelan Booth (’02) and husband Josh of Atlanta announce the birth of a son, Joshua Michael Booth Jr., July 3, 2014. “We call him ‘JJ,’” Nicole said.

Anthony Cox (’02, MPA ’03) and Jennifer Taylor Cox (’02, MAT ’03) of Cornelia announce the birth of a son, Jason Glenn Cox, May 13, 2014. He joins big brothers T.J and Reilly. Anthony was named Registrar at Piedmont College in August 2014.

Rebecca Ann Deurlein (’02) of Sugar Land, Texas, has written a new book, Teenagers 101: What a Top Teacher Wishes You Knew About Helping Your Kid Succeed, published by AMACOM/McGraw-Hill. Rebecca has taught high school students for 17 years and has a doctorate in educational leadership.

CLASS NOTES

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CLASS NOTES

Carla Edenfield (’04, MBA ’09) and husband CJ (’07, MBA ’10) announce the birth of a son, Hudson Charles Edenfield, May 12, 2014. Hudson joins big sister, Lila.

Resa Train (’04) and Shawn Wildermuth were married May 31 in Atlanta and have been on the road ever since, traveling to France, England, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Czech Republic. “We’re planning to travel through Europe and Asia over the course of the next year, working online and seeing the sights,” Resa said. “Next up is Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. We’re blogging and posting pictures at blog.shawnandresa.com.” Resa and Shawn operate Wilderminds.com, which produces computer development training videos.

Rob Weisel (’04) of Savannah graduated from the Higher Education Administration M.Ed. program at Georgia Southern University and recently joined the Student Success and Advising Department at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, as a Student Success Adviser for the School of Building Arts and School of Liberal Arts. This fall marked his ninth year at SCAD.

5 Sarah Bandfield (’05, MAT ’07) of Kenny Lake, Alaska, just welcomed her son, Carlos Bandfield, into the family on Aug. 8, 2014. Carlos was born in 2006 in Honduras.

6 Lauren Fritsch Goza (’05, MBA ’07) and husband, Jason, announce the birth of twins, Genevieve and Atticus, in June 2014.

7 Danielle Bailey Miller (’07) and Jeremy Miller (’99) of Athens celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary in October. They are busy keeping up with their nearly two-year-old wonder, Verona Bailey Miller, who “loves being at the theatre with her parents.” Danielle is associate artistic director

at Rose of Athens Theatre and Jeremy is the technical director at the Buford Community Center and Theatre. He recently published two children’s books, Firefly Night and DuckBoat which can be found on Amazon.com.

8 Justin Poole (’07) and Michelle Moody were married Oct. 18, 2014, at Line Baptist Church in Homer. Justin is the service coordinator at Magnolia Window & Doors in Baldwin.

9 Allison Baranowski (’08) of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., and husband Travis Cox announce the birth of a daughter, Morgan Kathryn Cox, on Sept. 18, 2014.

Tiffany Scott (’09) and Devin Thomas of Athens were married June 21, 2014.

Anna Lee Adams (MBA ’10) of Athens is working with LifeLink of Georgia as a hospital development liaison, educating hospital staff in the northeast Georgia region on tissue and organ donation.

Liat Faver (’10) of Demorest earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Converse College in June 2014.

Sarah Simler (’10) of Braselton is teaching math at Mill Creek High School in Hoschton, her high school alma mater.

Heather Allison (MAT ’11) of Athens has been named Teacher of the Year at South Jackson Elementary School. She is currently enrolled in the Piedmont Education Specialist program in Athens.

Phillip Sloan (’11) of Ringgold recently earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from the University of North Georgia. He is practicing as an outpatient orthopedic manual therapist in Hunstville, Ala.

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CLASS NOTES

Brandi Turpin (’13) of Commerce presented her paper, Sexuality in the Dissolution of the Transgender Relationship as a Result of Transition, at the Southern Sociological Society’s annual meeting. She has started the Masters of Science in Clinical Counseling Psychology program at Brenau University, where she also volunteers at the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services.

Rachel Davis (’14) of Cumming and Stephen Williams of Norcross, were married June 8, 2014, at Pine Crest Baptist Church in Gainesville. They are now living in southwest Mississippi.

Katie Robinson (’14) of Cornelia has enrolled at New York University to study drama therapy at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Katie was one of 41 recipients nationwide to receive a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship.

Trent Smith (’14) joined Ethicon in Cornelia as an analytic chemist in August 2014.

Anthony Wright (’14), besides getting married this summer, has accepted a chemist position with eLab Solutions in Sandy Springs. “During my interview, I was able to tell them about the research Dr. [Sean] Carrigan and I did my senior year, and I even gave them a copy of the thesis (which they loved),” Wright said. “They said that it’s rare to see undergraduates with independent laboratory research experience. All of these things they saw in me, they would not have seen if it weren’t for you all at Piedmont. The decisions you all made in how to run each department and class shaped me and my future. Thank you all.”

Kaitlin Norman (’15) of Martin earned early acceptance into the doctoral program in Physical Therapy (DPT) at North Georgia College in Dahlonega. Only 32 students will be accepted into this program for the 2015 academic year.

Faculty

Dr. Janice Moss was named the Habersham County Rotarian of the Year in June 2014. A member since 1996, Moss served as chair of the group’s Service Committee from 2008-12, and in 2008 was named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International. She also received the Educational Service Award in 2009.

Dr. Al Pleysier has written a new book, Henry VIII and the Anabaptists. The book follows the first Anabaptists in Switzerland as they search for religious freedom across Europe and into England. Intolerant of religious diversity and sensitive to potential threats to his political authority, Henry VIII’s suppression of the Anabaptists leaves them with two choices: recant or burn. A professor of history at Piedmont since 1982, Pleysier is also the author of five books on Russian history and World War II.

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Robin Sweat (’11) of Toccoa has joined the Toccoa Clinic as a nurse practitioner. After earning her nursing degree at Piedmont, Robin earned a master of science in nursing from the University of North Georgia and for the past six years has served as a patient care technician and nurse in the intensive care unit at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center. She was certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in May 2014.

Courtney Benson (’13) of Medina, Ohio, is working for Folgers Coffee R&D analytical lab.

10 Jessica Hollis (’13) of Oakwood has been named Sports Information Director at Truett-McConnell College, where she also serves as assistant volleyball coach. Jessica will graduate this December from Piedmont with a Master of Business Administration degree.

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Obituaries1930s William T. Dalton (’36-39) of Dacula, Ga., died July 12, 2014. He was 95. Born in Gwinnett County, Mr. Dalton graduated from Dacula High School in 1936 and attended Piedmont College and the University of Georgia, after which he taught school until he became the rural mail carrier for the Dacula Post Office in 1940. He entered the Army in 1942 and served in Europe until the end of World War II. After the war, he resumed working as a rural mail carrier until he retired in 1981. He served many years as Treasurer for the Georgia Rural Letter Carriers Association. He was a charter member of the Dacula Touchdown Club and served as the basketball scorekeeper and time keeper for more than 30 years, resulting in his induction into the Dacula High Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. He actively supported the Piedmont Alumni Association and served on the alumni board for several years. As a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, he served as a deacon for more than 50 years, sang in the choir until age 86, and taught Sunday School until age 92.

1940s Loyce Alberta Bagwell Petersen (’43) of Burlington, N.C., died July 31, 2014. She was 93. Mrs. Petersen grew up in Mountain View and in 1939 entered Piedmont College, where she met her future husband, Richard Petersen (’43). She began teaching during World War II, and in 1951 Loyce and Richard moved to Elon, N.C., where he was a minister. Loyce retired from teaching at Western Alamance High School in Elon, N.C., in 1985. They lived for a time in Alabama before moving back to Alamance County in 1999.

E. R. “Rudy” Buice (’47) of Columbia, S.C., died Aug. 3, 2014. He was 96. Born in Forsyth County, he was a graduate of Chattahoochee High School in Hall County,

where he played on the 1936 State Championship Basketball Team. While a student at Piedmont, he played varsity baseball. He was a teacher at Flowery Branch High School, where he was also the school’s athletic director, coached basketball and baseball, and directed all school plays. He retired from the State of Georgia as a counselor in the division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Mr. Buice served in the U.S. Army during WWII. He was a member of #512 Masonic Lodge F&AM in Clermont, a longtime member of Lions Club, life member of National Rehabilitation Association, and an ordained deacon.

Josephine Carithers (’48) of Danielsville, Ga., died Aug. 9, 2014. She was 90. Born in Oglethorpe County, she attended school in Madison and Oglethorpe counties and graduated from Comer High School in 1940. She graduated from Rabun Gap-Nacoochee Junior College, Piedmont College, and the University of Georgia. She taught for 40 years in the public schools in Barrow, Cobb, Madison, and Oglethorpe counties and was a member of the Madison County Retired Educators. She was a member of Cloud’s Creek Baptist Church since 1937, where she was a church clerk, Discipleship Training Director, and Sunday School Teacher.

1950s William James “Bill” Corry (’51) of Madison, Ga., died Aug. 22, 2014. He was 89. Mr. Corry was born in Union Point and attended North

Georgia College for one year before enlisting in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He served as a radio operator aboard Navy PBY Catalinas, flying air rescue and anti-submarine missions in the Aleutian Islands. After the war, he graduated from Piedmont College and earned a master’s degree from Peabody College and a specialist degree in education from the University of Georgia. He began his teaching and coaching career at Rockdale County High School and moved to Madison in 1953 to teach and coach. In 1956 he was named head football coach at Morgan County High School, and over the next seven seasons his teams compiled a record of 78-6-3, winning state championships in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1962. He then served as principal of Winder-Barrow High School, Madison Elementary, and Morgan County Elementary and Junior High, retiring in 1983. He is a member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Piedmont College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995. Survivors include his wife of 65 years, Hilda McCart Corry.

Robert H. Powell (’52) of Hartwell, Ga., died May 17, 2014. He was 81. Mr. Powell retired from the federal government, where he worked in the Pentagon for the Army as an analyst. He was a former police officer for the Hartwell Police Department and did security work for the Toccoa Social Security office. He was a member of the American Legion, VFW and also a U.S. Army veteran.


Miriam Whitlow Purdy (’52) of Carnesville, Ga., died May 22, 2014. She was 87. Born in the Fairview Community, she was married for 49 years to the late Curtis Purdy. She taught in the Franklin County School System for 37 years, including 35 years at Carnesville Elementary School.

John Perry Hendrix (’53) of Demorest, Ga., died Sept. 22, 2014. He was 85. Born in Barrow County, Mr. Hendrix was a 1946 graduate of Winder Barrow

High School. He was mayor of Demorest from 1971-1978 and served as a city councilman for 28 years from 1981-2009. He also served on the Habersham County Water Authority. He was retired from Ethicon, a division of Johnson and Johnson, and served as superintendent of the Cornelia plant for 39 years. A member of Cornelia First Presbyterian Church, he was a charter member of the Habersham Rotary Club and a charter member of the Joseph Habersham Chapter Sons of the American Revolution.

Henry Grady Starnes (’53) of Duluth, Ga., died May 9, 2014. He was 84. Born in Atlanta, Mr. Starnes graduated from Savannah High School in 1949. At Piedmont he graduated with a degree in English in 1953, the same year he married fellow student, Annie Hawkins (’53) and they were married for 60 years. While a student at Piedmont, he appeared in the 1951 movie, I’d Climb the Highest Mountain, filmed in nearby White County. A member of the basketball, baseball, and tennis teams, he was inducted into the P-Club Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. After two years in the Army, he earned a master’s degree from Peabody College for Teacher’s (now part of Vanderbilt University). He was a high school English teacher, basketball coach, textbook salesman, author and consultant. An avid tennis player, he traveled the country playing senior tournaments. As

an author, he published four books after his retirement.

Norman S. Ivie (’54) of Athens, Ga., died Sept. 20, 2014. He was 81. Born in Mountain City, Mr. Ivie spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve and was retired from General Wire and Cable. At Piedmont, he was a member of the Protropian Society for four years and served as reporter his senior year. He was a member of Forest Heights Baptist Church, where he served on the deacon board, taught Sunday school and was the church treasurer for 32 years.

Roy B. Tench (’56) of Alto died Sept. 17, 2014. He was 92. Mr. Tench was born in Cornelia and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was a member of the American Legion Post #84, The Grant Reeves VFW post #7720, and the Cornelia F&AM Masonic Lodge number 92. Tench was a noted fiddler, performing with numerous northeast Georgia bands since the 1930s.

1960s Dr. Louie Anderson Brown (’61) of Athens died May 12, 2014. He was 81. Born in Hartwell, he served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. After graduating from Piedmont, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. He served on the faculty of East Tennessee University, Appalachian State University, and Valdosta State University, where he chaired the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice. He retired from VSU in 1995 as Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Dwain A. Toney (’63) of Watkinsville, Ga., died Aug. 28, 2014. He was 82. Born in Carnesville, Mr. Toney graduated from Franklin County High School in 1948.

He served in the Army Signal Corps from 1954-56 and in the National Guard

from 1956-1991. He earned a degree in business administration from Piedmont. He began his career with the United States Department of Agriculture, serving in Banks County. He continued with the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) in Baldwin, and Stephens counties and retired after 34 years with the ASCS as the executive director for Clarke and Oconee counties. He was also an advocate for recreation programs in Oconee County, where he served as president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1988. In 2012 he received the Piedmont College Distinguished Alumni Award.

1970s Patricia Gail Alexander Brown (’73) of Toccoa, Ga., formerly of Cleveland, died July 25, 2014. She was 65. Mrs. Brown graduated with honors from White County High School in 1967 and was named “Chieftain Queen” and was voted “Most Lady-Like.” She graduated from Piedmont with a degree in early childhood education. She later earned a master’s degree from Brenau University. She taught in the Habersham County School system for some 30 years and after retiring in 2005 continued to teach part-time for a number of years. She was one of the first educators in Habersham County to initiate the Reading Recovery Program. She was a member of the Georgia Retired Educators and the American Association of University Women.

Thomas Newton Lumsden Jr., (’79) of Nacoochee, Ga., died July 19, 2014. He was 59. Mr. Lumsden was born March 25, 1955, in Clarkesville to Dr. Thomas and India Lumsden. He graduated from Westminster Schools in Atlanta in 1972 and attended Duke University on a Naval ROTC scholarship. He later graduated from Piedmont College and was on staff at Habersham Home in Demorest for many years. He was an avid writer and chess player.


2000s Patricia Ann Treutle (M’06, EdS ’10) of Flowery Branch, Ga., died Feb. 21, 2013. She was 59. Born in Lacon, Ill., Mrs. Treutle graduated from Northern Illinois University and in 1983 joined the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, where she served as a police officer and detective for 13 years. She and her husband, Steven, then moved to Gwinnett County, where she taught math and English at Buford Middle School and Buford High School for 12 years.

Friends

Josephas Jackson (Jack) Lancaster of Gainesville, Ga., died Aug. 27, 2014. He was 90. Born in Hall County, Mr. Lancaster graduated from Braselton High School and worked at Piedmont College before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1941. After the war, he enrolled at the University of Georgia and earned a BS in Agronomy and a master’s degree in Agricultural

Economics. He also earned an Ed.D. in Adult Education from Cornell University. He was employed as a County Agent in Union, Towns and Catoosa counties and ultimately became Head of Extension Education in the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia. He was a past president of the National Association of Adult Educators.

John Marsh Knight of Clarkesville, Ga., died June 5, 2014. He was 85. In 1947, at age 17, he joined the U.S. Army and served in Japan during reconstruction following World War II. After returning to Clarkesville, he attended Piedmont College, where he met his wife, the late Betty Ruth Christian. He worked for 38 years for Edward Don & Company, a distributor of food service equipment based in Chicago. An avid hiker, he enjoyed walking the Appalachian Trail and sky watching.

Joseph H. Torras Sr., 90, of Charleston, S.C., died Sept. 2, 2014. Mr. Torras was born in Americus and grew up in Sea Island and Brunswick. He served as a U.S. Navy pilot during World War II, flying TBF Avengers in the Pacific. After the war he graduated from Yale University with a degree in engineering. He earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1950 and then began a 53-year career in the paper industry. He served as a Piedmont Trustee and in 1997 received an honorary doctorate from the college.

ALUMNI WEEKEND

www.piedmont.edu/alumni

APRIL | 2015

S A V E T H E D A T E

IT’S THAT TIMEOF YEAR AGAIN!MARK CALENDARS, SAVE THE DATE!Gather your friends, planyour dinners, call youralumni office, and get the ball rolling! See you there!

piedmont college journal fall 2014

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