For more than 20 years Gene Younts, retired UGA vice president for public service, led a group of new faculty members on an annual bus tour of Georgia. He recounts those years in a new book, Back on the Bus: Twelve Hundred Miles Through Georgia.
The book is divided into Monday through Friday chapters, with each chapter discussing the day’s activities and even some tour jokes.
It also contains photos of the people, places and things of the tour ranging from faculty members sleeping on the bus to cows at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station to landmarks around the state. Many of the photos are from Younts’ personal collection. Younts led and helped plan the first tour in 1977 and continued his service until 1999.
The New Faculty Tour begins in Athens, goes north to mountains, stops in Atlanta, then heads into the southwestern part of the state, takes an eastward journey to the sea and Savannah before returning to Athens. The tour’s objective is to acquaint new Georgians with the geography, industry, agriculture, leadership, culture and history of the state.
The book is available at Borders bookstore, the State Botanical Garden and directly from the author at seyounts@chater.net.
