Georgia Highlands College hosted a gala recently to celebrate its 40th anniversary and renowned attorney Bobby Lee Cook of Summerville gave the keynote address to a crowd of 140 guests, telling them not to take our freedoms for granted. Cook also privately presented Pierce with a contribution of $100,000, which will be used to create the Bobby Lee Cook scholarship for students in need

Eighty percent of Georgia Highlands students receive some form of financial aid. `These funds will support scholarship money for countless students who might not be able to attend college otherwise, said GHC President Randy Pierce. `There could be no greater gift than that.`

Pierce also announced that Heritage Hall, the downtown facility in Rome that houses the college’s health sciences programs, would be renamed James D. Maddox Heritage Hall.

Maddox was instrumental in bringing the college to Rome in 1970.

He worked tirelessly behind the scenes to solicit community support in Rome/Floyd County, to convince the Board of Regents of the need for the college and to negotiate the acquisition of the 233-acre tract of land on Cedartown Highway, six miles south of Rome, where the college was built. `If not for Jimmy Dick Maddox,` said Pierce, ` This institution might very well not have materialized, at least in Floyd County.`

Pierce also announced that GHC is establishing the James D. Maddox Memorial Scholarship to help worthy students in their pursuit of their higher education goals.