Four distinguished

alumni of Fayette County High School were honored recently. They include

Dr. Dean Brown, the late Grady Huddleston, Donna Kirby and Barney Walker.

Dr. Douglas

Dean Brown graduated in the Class of 1950. When he began in first grade

in the fall of 1939, it was in a new school building named the Fayetteville

Grammar School. It presently serves as the Fayetteville City Hall.

He played basketball

all four years, was a member of the Beta Club, president of his class

all four years, and was salutatorian of his senior class.

He met and

married Joan Jackson at the University of Georgia in 1956 and then spent

most of the next year at Aberdeen Proving Grounds where he received officers'

training. They have two sons and a grandson.

He returned

to Fayette County in 1957 and he and his wife were employed as teachers

at Fayette County High School. Dr. Brown has served his county in various

educational capacities: principal of Fayetteville Grammar School and Fayetteville

Elementary School, opened Hood Avenue Elementary, first assistant superintendent

under Superintendent Eugene Bowers, principal of a new Fayetteville Elementary,

and assistant superintendent under Superintendents Jerry Stinchcomb and

Trigg Dalrymple. He retired in 1995.

The late Grady

L. Huddleston, class of 1939, had a distinguished career in the military,

in the Georgia Legislature, the State Department of Veterans Service,

and the State Merit System. He died February 20, 2001.

He was graduated

from the University of Georgia in 1942 with a bachelor of science degree,

and Woodrow Wilson College of Law, graduating in 1962 with an LLB degree.

From 1942 to

1946 he served in the United States Army in European Theater of Operations

as an infantry platoon leader. He was company commander for 20 months,

and received the Bronze Star and the European Theater Ribbon with two

Battle Stars.

He married

the former Carolyn Putman of Brooks, and they have two children.He served

in the Georgia Legislature from 1947 to 1960 from Fayette County, and

served on six various committees.

He was state

supervisor over all training, programs and coordinators from 1956 to 1963.

In that year he was put in charge as the Director of Training statewide

for the Georgia State Merit System. He retired in 1978.

From 1988 to

2001, he was a judge of Magistrate Court, Fayette County.

Though born

in DeKalb County in 1939, Donna Kirby and family moved to Fayette County

in 1941.

She attended

Truett McConnell Junior College in Cleveland, Ga., graduated from Georgia

State University in 1961 with a bachelor of arts in English and Secondary

Education, and received her master of religious education from Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., in 1963.

She was appointed

to Hong Kong. She held this position until her retirement in 2002.

Currently she

teaches in the English as a Second Language program at Fayetteville First

Baptist Church.

Barnard William

Walker was a graduate of the Class of 1949 and served in the United States

Army.

He founded

Farmers and Builder's Supply in 1953, subsequently renamed Walker Concrete.

He has served in this industry for over 50 years and is a mainstay in

major building and construction projects throughout the Southern Crescent.

He has served

on the Fayette County Planning and Zoning Board for 4 years, served as

chairman of the Fayette County School Board for 4 years, served as a City

of Fayetteville councilman for 8 years, and has served on the board of

directors for four Fayette County banks.

Those attending

the Fayetteville First Baptist Church have been greeted at the door each

Sunday by Barney for over 40 years.

He has been

married to Sue Hancock for over 50 years, and they have four children,

and 11 grandchildren.