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Armstrong State announces graduates
A number of locals among class of 2014
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Editor's note: Though Armstrong Atlantic's graduation was in May, this release announcing graduates was only recently received. 

More than 700 students graduated from Armstrong Atlantic State University on Saturday, May 10, including the following local students:

Codi Jones of Richmond Hill

Carey Anderson of Ellabell

Mallory Scott of Richmond Hill

Dianne Hagans of Pembroke

Nell Brennan of Richmond Hill

Amanda Raun of Richmond Hill

Matthew Tipton of Richmond Hill

Thao Lam of Richmond Hill

Jessica Martin of Pembroke

Shaundrea McCoy of Richmond Hill

Donald Welch of Richmond Hill

HammondBailey of Richmond Hill

Amy Cooper of Richmond Hill

Matthew Callahan of Richmond Hill

Corlin Ervin of Richmond Hill

Angela Peters of Richmond Hill

Christine Widmer of Ellabell

Tyler Carlson ofRichmond Hill

Nathan Kilburn of Richmond Hill

Stephanie Saba of Ellabell

Alphonso Ramsey of Richmond Hill

Joshua Davis of Richmond Hill

Brandon Hillis of Richmond Hill

Cailey Sparks of Richmond Hill

Casey Beckley of Richmond Hill

Christina Rybin of Ellabell

Susan Alligood of Richmond Hill

Michael Hagan of Richmond Hill

Melvin Neeley of Richmond Hill

Stefanie Ortiz of Richmond Hill

April Sawyer of Richmond Hill

Kurt Shuman of Pembroke

Katrina Lozano of Richmond Hill

Megan Westberry of Richmond Hill

George Papadopoulos of Richmond Hill

Degrees were conferred to candidates representing Armstrong's College of Education, College of Health Professions,College of Liberal Arts and College of Science and Technology at the university's Spring 2014 Commencement, held at the Savannah Civic Center.

Armstrong president Dr. Linda M. Bleicken welcomed the graduates and their families to Spring Commencement. Dr. Irving Victor, a retired physician, successful businessman and Armstrong alum, served as the keynote speaker.

 

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Later yall, its been fun
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This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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