GAINESVILLE - Riverside Military Academy officially welcomed its new superintendent at a Change of Command Ceremony Saturday afternoon.
Former astronaut and teacher Col. Guy Gardner took the reigns at RMA from Interim Superintendent Col. Richard Moore, becoming Riverside's eighth head of school.
"Cadets, staff and faculty at Riverside Military Academy, it is indeed my honor and my privilege to assume command of this fine academy," said Col. Gardner after the Change of Command.
"They had to go out of this world to get a replacement for me, so - Guy Gardner, former astronaut, retired Air Force Colonel - I'm pretty excited about it," said Col. Moore, who will stay on as Commandant of the academy.
Col. Gardner's Air Force career has included service as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, Commandant of the Test Pilot School, and as a NASA astronaut, piloting space shuttles Atlantis and Columbia and contributing to mission support and shuttle and space station development.
He also served with NASA as the initial Director of the joint American-Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, and with the Federal Aviation Administration as the head of the center responsible for civil aviation regulation.
Col. Gardner became a high school math teacher in 2000 for the Potomac School in McLean, VA.
"I've always been involved in education. Most of my career, even when my job title didn't look like an educators title, we were always educating," he said. "My dreams have always been to fly in space, to be a high school teacher, and to be involved in a leadership position in a school and this is the third one coming true, as the first two have."
Col. Gardner and his wife, Linda, expressed thanks to the Trustees for the opportunity to fulfill that dream. He said he is looking forward to their future at Riverside.
"I'm very much a team type leader," he said. "I will work with the incredible staff and faculty that is already here, just working as part of that team to help prepare these young men for their future lives."
Wednesday
March 12th, 2025
6:58AM
