Brenau University conferred its top non-academic awards Thursday night on Gainesville businessman James A. “Jim” Walters and long-time city employee and aviation entrepreneur Eloise Gilmer.
 
The university also presented an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Helen Ray, who is retiring at year’s end as provost and vice president for academic affairs after 15 years with the university. 

Brenau University President Ed Schrader presented the three awards Thursday night at a Chattahoochee Country Club dinner honoring close to 200 financial supporters who contributed at least $1,000 to the university’s annual fund or other programs.

The university gave Gilmer its Mary Mildred Sullivan Award, which was named for a 19th century southern humanitarian who assisted prisoners during the Civil War and in its aftermath worked aggressively for reconciliation between the states. Gilmer was lauded for her indefatigable energy in the community for close to 60 years and for her long-time financial and “moral” support for the university.

Gilmer, wife of the late Lee Gilmer for whom the Gainesville airport is named, moved to the city just a few years after World War II and, with her husband, built a successful private aviation business. A few years following his death, she began her more than 30-year career as a city employee, a role she continues today after she is well past normal retirement age. She also endowed a scholarship fund at Brenau that will help train nurses in the community for years to come.

The university presented its Distinguished Service to Brenau award James A. "Jim" Walters, president of Walters Management Co. in Gainesville, a long-time member of the Brenau University Board of Trustees, and one of the university’s top benefactors. Brenau service, however, is only part of the Walters legacy to the community. He has also has been a member of the Georgia Board of Natural Resources (including a term as chairman) and the North Georgia Mountain Authority. Walters’ largess has significantly affected other institutions in the community, including the hospital, the Boys and Girls Club and the Hall County YMCA. However, it was not so much for his financial support that Walters was honored; it was because “he has always been selfless with his time and personal energy,” said Schrader.  “Institutions love having him on their boards because he works at it.”

Conferring the honorary degree on Ray, Schrader said, “is an extremely appropriate send-off for a woman who has meant so much to this institution and to its academic integrity.” The former French language and literature professor has a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, a Master’s degree from Georgetown University, and an undergraduate degree from the former Randolph-Macon Women’s College. Among other things she has steered Brenau’s development of a new multi-disciplined liberal arts curriculum that will help set the university apart from other small, independent colleges and universities. 

Ray announced earlier this year that she would retire on Dec. 31 as the university’s top academic officer. For a complete profile of Ray and her work at Brenau, please see the article from Brenau Window magazine that is posted on the Web at http://alum.brenau.edu/Development/brenaumagazine/Fall2008/Helen%20Ray_fall08.pdf).

ABOUT BRENAU – Founded in 1878, Brenau University currently enrolls about 2,600 students in graduate, undergraduate and preparatory programs in the Academy; Women’s College; Evening and Weekend College; and Online College. The main campus of the Georgia-based liberal arts institution is in Gainesville with satellite campuses located in suburban Atlanta, Augusta and Kings Bay. Brenau’s 2009  ranking as the 10th-best higher education value in the Southeast by U.S. News & World Report marks the university’s third consecutive year in that position for the magazine’s America's Best Colleges guidebook.