The UGA Alumni Association will honor the late George D. Busbee and four other people for valuable service to the university at the association’s annual awards luncheon April 29.
The association will present its Alumni Merit and Faculty Service awards, and the Friend of UGA award, at a luncheon at noon at the Athens Country Club.
Busbee, who received degrees in business and law from UGA and served as governor from 1975 to 1983, will be honored posthumously with the Alumni Merit Award, which recognizes UGA graduates for professional leadership and lifetime loyalty and support of the university and the Alumni Association. Busbee died of a heart attack this past July.
The Faculty Service Award will be presented to three retired university officials-Ivery D. Clifton, former senior associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Gene E. Michaels, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology and long-time director of the Georgia State Science and Engineering Fair; and Larry Weatherford, former vice president for government relations. The award is given to faculty or staff members for distinguished service to the university.
Atlanta real estate executive Cecil M. Phillips will receive the Friend of UGA Award, which recognizes a non-graduate whose professional and public service benefits UGA.
The alumni association has presented the Alumni Merit Award since 1937 and the Faculty Service Award since 1969. The Friend of UGA Award was started in 2002.
As governor, Busbee promoted economic development and quality education. He made several trips abroad to recruit foreign firms to Georgia and in each of the last five years of his terms he helped attract new and expanded industrial investment exceeding $1 billion.
Clifton, who recently retired, joined the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 1976 and held a number of positions, including head of the agricultural economics department, interim chiarman of the agricultural economics division, assistant dean and interim dean. He also served as associate vice president for academic affairs.
Michaels earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from UGA and was on the faculty from 1967 until his retirement in 1998. In addition to teaching microbiology courses, he served from 1984 to 1998 as director of Academic Special Programs and was also director of the university’s Advanced Placement for Teachers program.
Last year Michaels established a trust that eventually will yield at least $2 million to create an endowed professorship in medical mycology and support undergraduate and graduate students in the microbiology department. A life member of the Alumni Association and the UGA Retirees Association, he is a member of the Presidents Club.
Weatherford received a degree in education from UGA in 1954 and worked at his alma mater from 1988 until 2000. He held several positions, including associate vice president for development and university relations, director of government relations, acting senior vice president for external affairs and vice president for government relations. He was also special assistant to former UGA President Charles Knapp and to President Michael F. Adams.
Phillips is managing partner of Place Properties in Atlanta and president of Place Properties Companies. Before he became a real estate executive, Phillips-who holds a law degree from the University of Michigan-was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of Alston and Bird and was executive assistant to Busbee when he was governor. In 2003 Phillips gave UGA $1 million to create the George D. Busbee Chair in public policy, a faculty position in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs.
