President Emeritus Sparky and Allene Reeves honor South Georgia Tech’s 2019 Outstanding Instructor of Year with stipend

South Georgia Technical College President Emeritus Sparky Reeves and his wife, Allene, presented South Georgia Tech’s 2019 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year winner, Brett Murray, with a stipend from the South Georgia Technical College Foundation’s Sparky and Allen Reeves endowed fund at the college’s 2019 Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year breakfast recently.

Brett Murray, the Law Enforcement Academy Director at South Georgia Tech, was recognized as the Instructor of the Year by SGTC President Dr. John Watford at a special ceremony in the John M. Pope Industrial Technology Center recently in front of the SGTC faculty and staff. Sparky and Allene Reeves made their gift after the announcement.

Murray is the fourth recipient of the Sparky and Allene Reeves Instructor of the Year award. Andrea Ingram, a Computer Information Systems Instructor, was the first recipient of the award in 2016 and Charles Christmas, an Aviation Maintenance Instructor, was selected in 2017. Teresa McCook, the Americus campus Criminal Justice Instructor, received the award in 2018.

President Emeritus Reeves and Allene endowed this special fund with the South Georgia Technical College Foundation in 2010 and have been growing the fund for the past nine years in order to be able to recognize the outstanding instructor and top student at South Georgia Technical College each year.

“I am so pleased to be here and see the success that South Georgia Technical College is continuing to enjoy,” said South Georgia Technical College President Emeritus Sparky Reeves when he was presenting a donation to the Instructor of the Year. “It is our pleasure to make this presentation to Brett Murray. He embodies the qualities that we strive to recognize with this stipend each year. We are so very proud of you and what you do for the students in your classroom. South Georgia Tech has an outstanding group of instructors that are knowledgeable about their subject matter and that care about students and their success. What you do is immensely rewarding because you make a difference in your students’ lives.

“I realize that students are the lifeblood of any college, but at South Georgia Tech, instructors are the heartbeat,” said Reeves. “Allene and I are so pleased to be able to give back to this college because it holds a special place in our hearts. I can think of no better way to give back than to reach out and touch the top instructor and the top student each year and thank them for choosing South Georgia Tech. We thank you for allowing us to come back and make this presentation.”

Reeves joined the South Georgia Technical College faculty in 1973 as an Accounting, Math, and Business Psychology Instructor. In addition to teaching, he also served as a Supervisor, Evening Coordinator, Vice President of Economic Development and President. He retired in 2015.

Brett Murray will represent South Georgia Technical College at regional and state competition in an effort to be selected as the top instructor within the Technical College System of Georgia.

“On behalf of South Georgia Technical College I would like to thank President Emeritus Sparky and Allene Reeves for their continued support of South Georgia Technical College, its instructors and its students,” said SGTC President Dr. John Watford. “I talked about the legacy that South Georgia Technical College has and President Reeves and Allene embody that legacy. They have been special to South Georgia Tech for many years and today they demonstrated again why they mean so much to the college, its faculty, staff, and students,” added Watford.

For more information about making a donation or establishing an endowed scholarship at South Georgia Technical College, contact Su Ann Bird, SGTC Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Foundation Executive Director at 229-931-2011 or sbird@southgatech.edu. Tax deductible donations may also be mailed to the SGTC Foundation, P.O. Box 6102, Americus GA 31709.