Athens, Ga. – The U.S. Navy Supply Corps School and the University of Georgia will host a ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 10:30 a.m. at the Navy School to commemorate the transition of the property from the Navy to the University of Georgia. Featured participants in the ceremony will be Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy, and Sonny Perdue, Governor of the State of Georgia, who will sign a document recognizing the transfer along with UGA President Michael F. Adams. Other ceremony participants will include President Ricardo Azziz of the Medical College of Georgia; Captain James Davis, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Navy Supply Corps School; and Athens-Clarke County Mayor Heidi Davison.
The Navy is scheduled to transfer the Navy Supply Corps School property to the U.S. Department of Education, which will deed the property to the university in March 2011, but Navy and UGA officials elected to hold the ceremony now, prior to the final graduation of trainees from the Supply Corps School on Oct. 29. Following the graduation, the majority of Navy personnel will relocate to the Supply Corps School campus in Newport, R.I.
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to move the Navy Supply Corps School under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. In 2007, UGA announced plans to apply for the property to convert it to the UGA Health Sciences Campus, which would house the MCG-UGA Medical Partnership, the UGA College of Public Health, and potentially other academic units.
In so doing, UGA will continue the 120-year history of education on the Navy School site. In 1891, the Georgia State Normal School was incorporated on the property, and in 1932, the school became the Coordinate College of the university for women. In 1953, the Navy acquired the site for use as the Supply Corps School.
Mabus was appointed the 75th Secretary of the Navy by President Barack Obama in May 2009. He previously served as governor of the state of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992 and as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996. Prior to becoming governor, he was elected state auditor of Mississippi and served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy aboard the cruiser USS Little Rock.
Media wishing to cover the event should RSVP to LTJG Bing at the number and address above by Oct. 15. They will need to bring photo IDs to the event, and will enter the Navy School base at the Oglethorpe Avenue entrance.
