Release Date: Monday, November 4, 2002

UGA BLUE KEY TO HONOR NORMAN FLETCHER, MARY VIRGINIA AND HERMAN TERRY, AND GORDHAN PATEL

ATHENS, Ga. — The University of Georgia chapter of Blue Key honor society will recognize the state's top jurist, two of the university's leading benefactors and a veteran university administrator at the annual Blue Key Banquet November 8.

The Blue Key Service Award will be presented to Norman S. Fletcher, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court; Mary Virginia Terry and her late husband, C. Herman Terry, namesakes of the Terry College of Business; and Gordhan Patel, UGA vice president for research. Fletcher will be the featured speaker for the banquet, which will be at UGA's Center for Continuing Education.

The Blue Key Young Alumnus Award will be presented to Heath Garrett, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Johnny Isakson. In addition, winners of the Tucker Dorsey Memorial Scholarship and BellSouth Student Leadership Award will be announced.

Blue Key national honor fraternity was founded in 1924 at the University of Florida and has more than 300 chapters throughout the United States. The UGA chapter, which was started in 1926 as the second chapter in the nation, presents the Blue Key Service Award to distinguished citizens who have made major contributions to the state and the university. The award has been given since 1964.

Fletcher was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1989 by Gov. Joe Frank Harris and has been re-elected in several elections. He became chief justice in 2001.

He received a bachelor's degree from UGA in 1956 and a law degree in 1958. He also holds a master of law degree from the University of Virginia law school. He is a past president of the UGA Law School Association and was a member and chair of the school's board of visitors.

Before joining the Supreme Court, Fletcher practiced law in Rome and LaFayette. He also served as LaFayette city attorney and Walker County attorney, and was a special assistant attorney general for the state.

He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Georgia Bar Foundation, and is a master in the Joseph Henry Lumpkin Inn of Court. In 1999, the Georgia Indigent Defense Council gave Fletcher the Harold G. Clarke Award for his work to ensure equal justice to all Georgia citizens.

Mary Virginia Terry and the late C. Herman Terry have a long record of support for UGA and its business college. Herman Terry received a business degree from the college in 1939 and became a successful insurance executive and businessman in Jacksonville, Fla., where the couple have also been major supporters of philanthropic, educational and cultural causes.

In 1990, the Terrys gave the business college $6 million, at the time the largest cash gift in university history. The gift funded seven professorial chairs, scholarships for undergraduates, and fellowships for teaching and research. A later additional gift created another endowed chair in the college, which has been named the Terry College of Business.

Earlier this year, Mrs. Terry made a gift to the College of Pharmacy to create an endowed chair in honor of her husband's father, William H. Terry, who was a pharmacist. She also gave the university $300,000 to support research and treatment of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Herman Terry died in 1998 from respiratory complications.

Ardent Bulldog fans, the couple also gave money to help build Butts-Mehre athletic hall and to fund athletic scholarships. Herman Terry was an emeritus trustee of the UGA Foundation, a member of the Presidents Club, and in 1986 received the business college's Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Herman Terry was also a trustee of Jacksonville University and the Cummer Gallery of Art, and was chairman of the Jacksonville Port Authority. Mary Virginia Terry is on the boards of the Wolfson Children's Hospital, the Children's Home Society, the Salvation Army, the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless and the Jacksonville Symphony.

Patel, a biochemist, joined the faculty of UGA's cellular biology (formerly zoology) department in 1967. After serving as department head for eight years, he became dean of the Graduate School in 1989.

In 2000, UGA President Michael F. Adams appointed Patel interim vice president for research following the retirement of Joe Key. Adams named Patel permanent vice president and associate provost 10 months later on the recommendation of a committee that conducted a national search to fill the position. Patel continued to also serve as graduate school dean until a new dean was named earlier this year.

Over the two-year period Patel has led UGA's research program, research funding through awards, grants and contracts has risen from $102 million to $139 million. He hired a person to improve the process for preparing and submitting applications for research grants and contracts. He also added a director of technology commercialization, and last year UGA earned $3.8 million in patent fees and royalties resulting from research.

Patel's scientific research focuses on proteins involved in unwinding of the DNA double-helix, and how those proteins function in regulating genes. His research has been supported by the American Cancer Society, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, and he has reported results of his work in leading scientific journals and at meetings in Europe, Asia, Africa and throughout the United States.

A national leader in graduate education, he has been chair of the board of directors of the Council of Graduate Schools and president of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools. He is on the boards of the Graduate Record Exam and the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), two major programs of the Educational Testing Service.

Garrett, the Young Alumnus Award recipient, received a bachelor's degree in political science from UGA in 1992 and a law degree in 1995. He manages Isakson's Washington and district offices and advises the congressman on policy and political matters.

Before joining Isakson's staff, he was a policy advisor to the State Board of Education and managed Isakson's 1996 senatorial campaign. Garrett is a member of the Marietta Rotary Club, a trustee of Southern Polytechnic State University and was chosen this year as one of Georgia Trend Magazine's "40 Under 40" rising stars.

The Tucker Dorsey Memorial Scholarship is named for the deceased son of the late Jasper Dorsey, a Southern Bell executive and UGA graduate and alumni leader who strongly supported Blue Key. Tucker Dorsey, who died in an auto accident in 1965, was a student leader and a founder of the Blue Key Banquet. The $500 scholarship recognizes students for outstanding service and leadership.

The BellSouth Student Leadership Award was created last year in memory of Jasper Dorsey. Two students will each receive the $250 award.

The Blue Key banquet is open to the public. Reservations, at $25 per person, can be made by contacting Dorothe Otemann at 706-583-0698.

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