Volume 75
Number 4


The Lord of Misrule

Emory Medalists

Enigma: The Haunting of Uppergate House

The Emory Century

Wonderful Woodruffs
The Ubiquitous Woodruff
Living up to the Legacy
The Return of the
Bright Brigade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


   

1999 EMORY MEDALISTS

 

The University named nine Emory Medalists during Alumni Weekend 1999

“This award adds yet another to the many debts which I owe Emory for what it’s meant to me in my life and in the lives of the five generations in my family who have been students,” said Miami trial lawyer Walter H. Beckham Jr. ’41C. Beckham is professor emeritus at the University of Miami law school. He has served in leadership positions for the Greater Miami YMCA, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Association, and the National Judicial College. A charter member of the Dean’s Council for Emory College, he also has served as president of the Miami Area Alumni Club.
“All I can say is, we’ve come a long way, baby!” said Emory Sports Hall of Famer and alumni trustee Robert E. Chappell Jr. ’56Ox-’58B- ’68MBA, who is perhaps best known around campus for Chappell Park, the baseball field he gave in honor of his father and his two sons, Brett E. Chappell ’87C and Theodore E. Chappell ’91Ox-’93C, who played Emory baseball. Chappell retired as senior executive vice president and chief investment officer of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1993. A member of the Oxford College Board of Counselors and a past president of the Association of Emory Alumni, he has served on the Board of Governors, the Board of Visitors, and the Parent Program Athletic Committee.
“We are an accumulation of our life’s experiences, and I believe that my years here at Emory were absolutely formative and had a very big part in allowing me to be what I am today,” said Kenneth D. Cole ’76C, who invested his life savings to start his shoe business in 1982. Using advertisements known for their sense of humor and social commitment, Cole has expanded his business internationally. He has received numerous awards for his philanthropy, including the Council on Foundations Humanitarian Leadership Award.
Emory Trustee James L. Ferman Jr. ’65B, president of Ferman Motor Car Company, and Cecelia Davis Ferman ’65C both received medals. “Emory has always been a set of contrasts and exciting events. Within these four walls [of Glenn Memorial Auditorium], I have now heard the esteemed author Shelby Foote and the twenty-two-year-old folk singer Bob Dylan,” said James Ferman, who has held leadership positions in the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Aquarium, and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. He also has served on the the Board of Visitors, the Association of Emory Alumni Board of Governors, and the Tampa Emory Club. “Thank you, Emory,” said Cecelia Ferman. “My first debt of gratitude goes to my parents, who borrowed the money to send me to Emory, and I’m so glad they did.” She is a volunteer and fund-raiser for Meals on Wheels and has served in leadership positions for Girl Scouts of America, United Way of Greater Tampa, and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute Foundation.
Moved to tears, Fleming L. Jolley ’43Ox-’47M thanked his mother, “who started me to Emory in 1941” and who was there to applaud when Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery Jolley accepted his Emory Medal. A fellow in the American College of Surgeons and a member of the National Council of Medicine, Jolley also has served as a member of the Oxford Board of Counselors, Oxford Alumni Recruitment Network, and the Emory Club of Atlanta Steering Committee. In what was the largest single gift to Oxford from an alumnus, Jolley provided funds for the renovation of four residential halls on the Oxford campus.
“With this award, I expect to get a lot more respect around the house,” joked Margaret E. Parsons ’75MN-’85PhD, associate dean of the School of Nursing from 1994 to 1998, who delayed her retirement to serve as interim dean during the 1998—99 academic year. During her long career at Emory, Parsons received a number of honors and awards, including the Outstanding Undergraduate Faculty Award, the role of graduation marshal, and an “Honor a Colleague” recognition from the Georgia Nurses’ Foundation.
“I want first to remember my mother, who when I was a young girl, always excused me from household chores so I could do homework and read. The powerful message of this privilege has stayed with me,” said Beverly Guy-Sheftall ’84PhD, who has dedicated her life to “helping to make more visible the richness and complexities of black womanhood.” Founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center and Anna Julia Cooper Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Spelman College, Guy-Sheftall was co-editor of Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature, the first anthology of black women’s literature published in the United States, and founding co-editor of SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women.

“Education that enables
one to discover one’s own talents–abilities to research, learn, and think critically and capacities for leadership–is an incredible gift,” said Ann Brookshire Sherer ’91DMin, the first Candler alumna to serve as a bishop in the United Methodist Church and the first woman to be elected bishop in the church’s South Central Jurisdictional Conference. She oversees both the Missouri East and Missouri West Conferences. She has worked as an advocate for Missouri children and implemented the United Methodist Episcopal Initiative on Children and Poverty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2000 Emory University