Tuesday, September 27, 2005

WRITER: Larry B. Dendy, 706/542-8078, ldendy@uga.edu
CONTACT: Tom Landrum, 706/542-0054, tlandrum@uga.edu

UGA Blue Key chapter to honor two Georgia Law alumni- Stuckey and Carr- as well as Albersheim and Bryan

ATHENS, Ga. -- The University of Georgia chapter of Blue Key Honor Society will recognize two Georgia Law alumni and a pioneering UGA scientist and one of the university’s most loyal alumni supporters at the annual Blue Key Awards banquet Oct. 21.

The society will present the 41st annual Blue Key Service Awards to Williamson (Bill) Stuckey Jr., who represented Georgia’s Eighth District in Congress for 10 years; Peter Albersheim, Distinguished Research Professor and co-director of UGA’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center; and Carolyn Warnell Bryan, whose family has provided strong support for the university’s Warnell School of Forest Resources.

Stuckey will be the featured speaker for the banquet, which will also include presentation of the Blue Key Young Alumnus Award to Chris Carr, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia. Winners of the BellSouth Student Leadership Award, the Richard B. Russell Student Leadership Award and the Tucker Dorsey Memorial Scholarship also will be announced.

The banquet, which is open to the public, will be at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. Reservations, at $25 per person, can be made by contacting Janet Holcomb at 542-0017.

Blue Key national honor society was founded in 1924 and has more than 300 chapters throughout the U.S. The UGA chapter, which was started in 1926 as the second chapter in the nation, presents the Blue Key Service Award to distinguished citizens who have made major contributions to the state and the university. The award has been given since 1964.

Stuckey, a native of Eastman who lives in Washington, D.C., received a bachelor’s degree in business from UGA in 1956 and a law degree in 1959. As a congressman from 1966-1976, he was author of bills that placed the Okefenokee Swamp under the National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness Act and helped protect Cumberland Island by naming it a National Seashore.

He has been involved for more than 45 years with the family business, Stuckey Corp., which owns Stuckey’s restaurants, and is chairman of the corporate board. He is also board chairman of Interstate Dairy Queen Corp., which franchises Dairy Queen restaurants.

Stuckey is also board chairman of Stuckey Timberland, Inc., which owns large tracts of forest and agricultural land in Georgia, and is chairman of Citizens Corp., a bank holding company in Georgia.

Stuckey and his wife, Ethelynn, are on the board of visitors of the UGA libraries and Stuckey has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Terry College of Business. He is a past president of the Forest Landowners Association and served on the board of governors of the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc., which regulates the NASDAQ securities market. His daughter, Stephanie Benefield, also a UGA graduate, is a member of the Georgia House of Representatives.

Albersheim and an associate, Alan Darvill, founded the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center in 1985 after moving the laboratory to UGA from the University of Colorado. With about 160 faculty, staff and other researchers, the center annually attracts more than $6.5 million in research funding and is one of UGA’s largest research units.

Albersheim is an international leader in studying the structure and interaction of molecules in complex carbohydrates, a class of biochemicals in cells that can control growth, reproduction and disease resistance in plants. His research, though at a basic level, provides information that may be useful in increasing yields of agricultural crops as well as the possible development of treatments for diseases such as cystic fibrosis and AIDS.

He has helped generate more than $22 million in federal and private research grants since coming to UGA. He is author of more than 300 articles, reports and other scientific publications and has spoken at scientific gatherings around the world.

A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Albersheim has received major awards for his research from the American Chemical Society and the American Society of Plant Physiologists.

Bryan, who lives in Savannah, is the daughter of the late Daniel B. Warnell, a Georgia banker, farmer and landowner who served in the state senate. Warnell supplied pine trees that UGA professor Charles Herty used for his research in developing the process to make paper from resinous southern pines. That process paved the way for the growth of the pulp and paper industry in the South.

Bryan and her sister, Dorothy, honored their father with a gift to UGA that led to the forest resources school being named for Warnell. Bryan later made additional gifts of land including more than 3,000 acres in Effingham County that is home of the Dorothy Warnell Research, Education and Demonstration Forest, and the Mary Kahrs Warnell Forest Education Center, which honors her mother.

Bryan received a bachelor’s degree in home economics from UGA in 1937 and worked for 25 years with UGA’s Cooperative Extension Service office in Chatham County. She was president of the Georgia Home Economics Association and was hospitality chair of the National Association of Extension Agents.

Active in civic affairs in Savannah, she was president of the Savannah Women Business Professionals Club and worked with the Chatham County Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Heart Association and the Arthritis Foundation. She is a long-time supporter of the Bamboo Farm in Savannah, where a pavilion is named for her.

Carr, who lives in Arlington, Va., will receive the Young Alumnus Award. He graduated from the Terry College of Business in 1995 with a degree in international business, and earned a law degree in 1999. While in law school he was president of the UGA Blue Key chapter.

After receiving his law degree he worked in the Atlanta law firm of Alston & Bird and was vice president and general counsel of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. He managed Isakson’s 2004 senate campaign and became deputy chief of staff when Isakson went to Washington.

The Tucker Dorsey Memorial Scholarship is named for a former Blue Key student leader who died in an auto accident in 1965. The scholarship recognizes students for outstanding service and leadership.

The BellSouth Student Leadership Award recognizes a male and female student for outstanding leadership qualities and achievements.

The Richard B. Russell Award recognizes a Blue Key student for outstanding leadership ability and potential.

##