GAINESVILLE – In 2009 Gainesville High School became the first high school in the nation to bestow honorary diplomas; Saturday morning a trio of longtime community servants were feted as the tenth class of honorary diploma recipients.
Donna Summers Hall, Dr. Patricia Ayers Burd and Robert “Bob” Hamrick are now officially Red Elephants.
Hall was nominated for the honor by GHS Director of Theater Pam Ware, where Hall volunteered for nearly two decades on the Theatre Friends Board
Ware said in her nomination of Hall: “Donna is this individual who teaches with a humble and loving heart by her actions and acceptance of all people regardless of station in life or background.”
Hall is also a graduate of Briarcliff High School in Atlanta.
Dr. Burd is a native of Illinois but has called Gainesville home for over three decades. She was nominated for the honorary diploma by David Shumake, former GHS Principal and later Associate Superintendent of Gainesville City Schools.
Dr. Burd served as a counselor at GHS from 1985-1997, and then worked as a mentor for nearly a decade. From 1997-2004 she was employed by Hall County Schools as a middle school counselor.
Shumake wrote in his nomination, “Dr. Burd has been an outstanding member of the education community from middle school to the collegiate level. Dr. Burd continues to promote life-long learning, citizenship and the responsibility of making a difference in the culture of our community by inspiring others to be the best they can be.”
“Bob” Hamrick was nominated for his honorary diploma by Gainesville’s mayor, Danny Dunagan, whom Hamrick work alongside on the Gainesville City Council.
Hamrick was elected to the city council in1969 and served an unprecedented 45 years, including five times as mayor.
The Austell High School graduate served in the U.S. Army and moved to Gainesville at the age of twenty.
Mayor Dunagan wrote of Hamrick: “There is no elected official, past or present, who has given more of himself to public service than Bob Hamrick.”
Hamrick said receiving his GHS diploma now puts him on an even standing with other family members: his wife (Class of 1952) and three children all are Red Elephants and his mother graduated GHS in 1919.
