Former Chattooga County Sheriff and Georgia Emergency Management Agency Director Gary McConnell was the featured speaker earlier this month at Georgia Northwestern Technical College’s Basic Law Enforcement graduation exercises. 

McConnell also serves as a trustee on the GNTC Foundation.

McConnell served as Chattooga County’s sheriff for 20 years and has continued to serve multiple law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

A career lawman, McConnell served as a deputy under his father, Sheriff John Frank McConnell. When he was 22, Gary McConnell assumed his father’s duties as sheriff following his father’s death in 1967.  As the youngest sheriff in Georgia history, McConnell started the Junior Deputy Program, was the president of the Georgia Sheriff’s and County Office Statewide Association, served on the board of the NW Georgia Region Police Academy as well as the State Board of Public Safety.

McConnell’s emergency management experience includes formerly serving as the director of Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) and as the chief of staff for state law enforcement during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He also advised law enforcement officials preparing for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

“It is one of the greatest honors you can have to be in law enforcement,” said McConnell during his speech.