I
am proud to share that Virginia Wesleyan University Trustee Emeritus
George Birdsong H'16, CEO and General Counsel of Birdsong Peanuts, will
be honored this evening at the Junior Achievement Hampton Roads Business
Hall of Fame event. The awards gala will recognize George’s lifetime
achievements and celebrate him as one of Hampton Roads’ most visionary
business leaders.
This is the second significant award George has received in recent
months. In November, he was honored with the Individual Leadership
Award
during the CIVIC Leadership Institute’s 2017 Darden Awards.
I was proud to attend that event to applaud the impact George has had on
our community through various philanthropic and service endeavors.
George
Birdsong has been affiliated with the Virginia Wesleyan Board of
Trustees since 1989. He served as Board Chair from 2007-2010 and he was
later designated as Trustee Emeritus. In 2016, he received an honorary
Doctor of Laws degree from the University and served as keynote speaker
during the institution’s inaugural Founders Day. He and his wife Sue,
the Birdsong family, and the Birdsong Corporation played a major role in
the University’s founding. Birdsong Hall, an original building in Bray
Village, was dedicated to the Birdsong family in 1968, and a plaque in
the building distinguishes the Birdsongs as dedicated Methodists whose
generosity helped establish Virginia Wesleyan.
Birdsong Peanuts
and the Birdsongs have made a number of significant gifts to the
University throughout its history. The Birdsong Community Services
Endowment Fund was formed in 1995 to provide support for Virginia
Wesleyan’s acclaimed community services program. The Birdsong
Corporation/George and Sue Birdsong Endowed Scholarship was also
established to provide assistance for deserving students. In 2015, the
University dedicated VWU’s Birdsong Field in honor of the Birdsong
family to celebrate their generous commitment to the facility. The
following year, the Birdsong School of Social Science was established
with recognition and deep appreciation for contributions by Harvard
Birdsong, a charter member of the Board of Trustees, George and Sue
Birdsong, Thomas Birdsong, III, and his wife Jane, the Birdsong family,
and the Birdsong Corporation.
Junior Achievement is the nation's
largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and
skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their futures,
and make smart academic and economic choices. Its programs—which focus
on work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy—ignite young
people to experience and realize the opportunities and realities of
work and life in the 21st Century.
George will be honored
tonight alongside Deborah DiCroce, President and CEO of the Hampton
Roads Community Foundation, W. Taylor Reveley, III, President of William
& Mary, and Bob Sasser, Executive Chairman of Dollar Tree.
On
behalf of Virginia Wesleyan University, we congratulate George Birdsong
for this extraordinary honor, and we express our deepest gratitude for
the visionary leadership he and his family have brought to this
institution.
