September 8, 2016
Happy Founders Day! Today we celebrate
our inaugural Founders Day at a fall convocation in the Jane P. Batten Center
at 11:00 a.m. Our Founders Day
convocation is preceded by an Alumni Awards Ceremony when we will pay tribute
to the 2016 Alumni Award Winners-- Lindsey E. Reynolds ’98, Amy Mallett Rickard
’98 and Rodney Young Jr. ’07. This year’s honorees are accomplished, talented
and bring great honor and distinction to Virginia Wesleyan College.
Lindsey E. Reynolds ’98 will receive the Distinguished
Alumna Award. She currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer at the
Democratic National Committee.
Previously, she held positions as Director of the Office of the
Secretary and the Executive Director of Democrats Abroad, as the Executive
Director of the Virginia State Democratic Party, as a legislative aide to State
Senator Stanley Walker (D-VA) and as Director of Finance for the Virginia Joint
Democratic Caucus. Lindsey graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College with a
bachelor’s degree in political science.
Amy E. Rickard (Mallett) ’98 will receive the Alumni Service Award.
Amy is currently the manager of client
services for Southern Company Gas, a subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the
nation’s largest energy companies. Her previous professional roles include
marketing manager for Spirit Cruises, Chartway Federal Credit Union, DIA
Advertising and as the vice president of marketing for AAA Tidewater Virginia.
Amy graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College with a bachelor’s degree in
communications and media studies. She served as president of the VWC Alumni
Council and was recently recognized by Inside
Business as a “Top 40 under 40” award recipient.
Rodney D. Young, Jr. ’07 will receive the Alumni
GOLD
(Graduate of the Last Decade) Award. Rodney is Corporal of the Gang
Suppression Unit/Hostage Negotiation Team of the Norfolk Police
Department. Prior to being promoted to
detective in 2014, he was a patrol officer in the first precinct,
assigned to
the public housing unit. He implemented a sports mentorship program to
build
positive rapport with citizens. While studying at Virginia Wesleyan,
Rodney
played on the basketball team and volunteered for the Winter Homeless
Shelter
before earning his bachelor’s degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies.
At the Founders Convocation, we will
also award honorary doctorates to two important individuals. We are pleased to be awarding
an honorary degree to Gary D. Bonnewell, ’79, a First Vice President, Senior
Investment Management Consultant, and Financial Advisor. Mr. Bonnewell
graduated from Virginia Wesleyan College in 1979 and has remained active at
Virginia Wesleyan, serving on the College’s Board of Trustees since 1997. He is
the first-ever alumnus to be named Chair of the Board (in 2013), and he has also
been President of the Alumni Council and the Blue Marlin Athletic Club. He will also be recognized with the
dedication of a classroom in the Floyd E Kellam, Jr., Social Science Lab in the
Village II complex.
In addition, an
honorary doctorate will be awarded to Stephen S. Mansfield, Ph.D. Dr. Mansfield currently serves as the College
Archivist, a role he undertook after his retirement in 2006. Dr. Mansfield has
served Virginia Wesleyan College with distinction for more than forty years,
first as a history
professor when he joined the faculty in 1968 and then as the Chair of the
Social Science Division, director of the College’s first four SACS
accreditation reaffirmation processes, and as Vice President for Academic
Affairs and Kenneth R. Perry Dean of the College. The Virginia Wesleyan College
Archives were named in his honor in 2013. Dr. Mansfield is also the author of
an historic, limited-edition book that commemorated the 50th
anniversary of the College’s founding. Wisdom Lights the Way, Virginia Wesleyan College’s First Half Century,
published by The Donning Company in 2010.
I’m pleased that Trustee Emeritus
George Birdsong will serve as the keynote speaker during our Founders Day
Convocation today. Mr. Birdsong is CEO and General Counsel for the Birdsong
Corporation, the largest peanut sheller in the U.S., based in Suffolk,
Virginia. He joined the Virginia Wesleyan College Board of Trustees in 1989 and
served as Board Chair from 2007-2010. Mr. Birdsong and his wife, Sue, trace
their connections with the College back to the groundbreaking for Bray Village
(Village I) on July 18, 1965. Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr., and Sue’s father,
Major T. Benton, who was Mayor of Suffolk, were also in attendance. George’s uncle,
Harvard R. Birdsong, was a key participant at the groundbreaking and a charter
member of the Virginia Wesleyan College Board of Trustees.
For his steadfast support in the
prosperity of the College, George Birdsong was recognized this spring with an
honorary Doctor of Laws degree. The Birdsong family and the Birdsong
Corporation were recently recognized with the naming of the Birdsong School of
Social Science at Virginia Wesleyan. Among their contributions to the College
have been support for construction of Birdsong Hall and Birdsong Field, and
creation of an endowment that annually funds the Office of Community Service.
Today’s Founders Day Convocation is
also being webcast, so if you can’t join us in person, please visit https://boxcast.tv/view/founde
