MACON — The Board of Trustees of Mercer University elected nine new trustees to the Board on Friday, Dec. 1, during the board’s semi-annual meeting at The University Center on Mercer’s Macon campus. The Board named Tom Watson Brown as a Life Trustee, only the fifth in the University’s history, and re-elected Augusta, Ga., attorney David E. Hudson as chairman of the Board of Trustees.
The election of the Trustees represents a milestone in the University’s 173-year history since it was the first time the Board has self-elected its new members since its separation from the Georgia Baptist Convention.
Brown, an Atlanta attorney, historian and scholar, and the Watson-Brown Foundation have made countless contributions to Mercer University. He has served as the only chairman of the Board of Directors of Mercer University Press since its establishment in 1979. He has served three five-year terms on the Mercer’s Board of Trustees. The other four individuals who have received the distinction of being named a Life Trustee are Gerald Saunders, Frank Jordan, William A. “Gus” Bootle and Remer Crum.
Hudson is a 1968 graduate of Mercer University and a 1971 graduate of Harvard Law School. He currently serves as a partner in Hull, Towill, Norman, Barrett & Salley, an Augusta law firm. Hudson has served on the Mercer University Board of Trustees for five terms.
The term for the new Trustees will expire in 2011.
New Trustees
Barbara Baugh, of San Antonio, Texas, serves as president of the Texas-based John and Eula Mae Baugh Foundation and owns Independent Traveler, a San Antonio travel agency.
Roddy J.H. Clark, of Alpharetta, graduated from Mercer in 1968. He has served since 1998 as managing partner at Redmont Venture Partners, a firm that manages two private equity funds.
Miriam McMahan Holland, of Jonesboro, is a 1960 graduate of Mercer University. She is a retired educator and administrator for the Clayton County Board of Education. Her election represents her fifth term on the Board of Trustees,
Thomas W. Malone, of Atlanta, graduated from the Mercer Law School and is an attorney at the Law Office of Thomas W. Malone. He is a former member of the Mercer Law School Board of Visitors.
M. Diane Owens, of Lilburn, is a double graduate of Mercer, earning her bachelor’s in 1977 and her law degree in 1980. She is a partner with Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers, LLP. She served as a representative of the Walter F. George School of Law phase of Mercer 2000: Advancing the Vision Campaign. She is a member of Mercer’s Law School Board of Visitors.
Hugh P. Thompson, of Milledgeville, is a 1969 graduate of the Mercer Law School. He is a Georgia Supreme Court Justice and previously served as Chief Judge and Superior Court Judge of the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit; judge of the Baldwin County Court; judge of the Recorder’s Court, City of Milledgeville.
James Thomas Turner Jr., of Savannah, is a 1973 graduate of Mercer and the president
J.T. Turner Construction Company Inc. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mercer University Alumni Association.
Raymond M. (Thad) Warren III, of Atlanta, is a 1986 graduate of Mercer. He is the chairman and CEO of Warren Environment Inc., North America’s largest supplier of industrial stack and duct systems.
William G. Wilson is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Dalton and the vice-chair of the Board of Visitors of the McAfee School of Theology.
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University has 7,300 students; 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies; major campuses in Macon and Atlanta; four regional academic centers across the state; a university press; teaching hospitals in Macon and Savannah; an educational partnership with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta; an engineering research center in Warner Robins; a performing arts center in Macon; and a NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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