DCC Alumni Awards
Four alumni are honored yearly from the three colleges comprising Danville Community College. Two are from DCC, one is from Danville Technical Institute and one is from Virginia Polytechnic Institute-Danville. In April the honorees are presented at the April DCC Foundation Board meeting and then honored at a following reception. News releases go out to news media throughout the region and then the honorees are presented at following alumni functions throughout the year. Their names are engraved on a permanent plaque of honorees displayed in the college.
The Recognition and Scholarship Committee for the DCC Alumni Association meets in February and March to select honorees from nominations received and listings kept of alumni who have made and are making contributions to their professions and communities. Anyone wishing to nominate alumni for the award should contact the Alumni Relations Coordinator at 434-797-8499 or at alumni@dcc.vccs.edu with the person’s name, address if known, and brief information as to the nominee’s qualifications along with means of communicating with the individual making the nomination.
The news release for the honorees follows:
NEWS RELEASE
Monday, May 12, 2008
Danville Community College’s Alumni Association
announced four alumni honorees for 2008 at 12 noon today when the DCC Foundation
Board met. Honorees include Debra Creasy Carlson, Danville
attorney; Donald Merricks, local business owner and delegate to the Virginia
General Assembly; Randy Davis, financial consultant; and Wayne Foster, retired
glass mold designer and precision engineer.
“Honorees, chosen by the Alumni Council from 68,000
alumni, have consistently served their community and their fields of employment
with distinction,” says Buddy Rawley, DCC Educational Foundation director.
The first honoree, Debra Carlson has been an attorney in
Danville handling real estate related matters since 1995 for Goodson, Garrett,
Creasy & Beard and then for Clement & Wheatley where she was Vice-President and
Attorney in Charge of the Residential Real Estate Division.
After graduating from DCC in 1984, she attained a B.A.
degree in Government from the College of William and Mary, a Master of Laws in
Taxation degree from the University of Denver and a Doctorate of Jurisprudence
from Mississippi College School of Law.
Carlson’s troubleshooting of issues began at Danville
Community College. “My greatest memory is that of being one
of the first ‘peer professionals,’ which was developed with Pete Castiglione, a
group which had an office in the Temple ‘day room’ for students to come by and
ask questions and for us to help them with any issues. It was
a group of five of us. We were very active in student
politics and activities, and I made the absolute best of the two years while I
was there—I really would have loved to have stayed there longer!”
Carlson, who says she did not have any problems with
credits transferring to William and Mary, was admitted to the Virginia Bar in
1989. She was subsequently admitted to practice before the
Virginia Supreme Court, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the
US Bankruptcy Court of the Western District of Virginia.
Carlson, an instructor over the past 16 years in law
issues and real estate law at DCC and Averett University, has decided to change
careers, focusing on family during her children’s young years and progressing
logically in real estate through seeking her real estate license.
The second honoree, Donald Merricks, legislator and
civic leader in numerous local organizations, is president of J.W. Squire
Company, Inc. and vice-president of RiverCity Specialties & Interiors, Inc.
His interest in business and entrepreneurship began at DCC where he
attained an A.A. degree in Business in 1972. While working at
First Virginia Bank-Piedmont, first as a teller and then as branch manager and
later as Executive-Vice-president, he received his B.S. in Business in 1974 and
his MBA in 1991 from Averett University.
In 1997 he transferred from banking to business
leadership. His oversight of two businesses and his years in
banking gave him broad knowledge of community and state needs leading him into
politics.
Merricks, who ran for the Virginia House of Delegates
from the 16th District, was elected as a first-term representative in
November 2007. A believer in giving back to his community and
colleges, he serves on both the DCC Educational Foundation Board and the
Anderson Student Aid Trust at Averett University.
Beyond his community, he is serving in a medical mission
in Cambodia for two weeks helping a DCC alumni conduct eye examinations and
blood pressure evaluations for Cambodians in need of medical treatments.
The third alumni honoree, Randy Davis, attended Virginia
Polytechnic Institute-Danville, one of the two previous institutions of DCC,
graduating from VPI-Blacksburg in 1966. A baseball player and
member of the honor court at VPI, he returned to the local area to teach and to
coach baseball at Hargrave Military Academy.
In 1981 he became a financial consultant for Wheat First
Securities, rising to Senior Vice-President and Branch Manager in 1982.
A graduate of the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School of
Business, he joined Scott and Stringfellow in June 2003 after four years with J.
C. Bradford.
An active educational and civic leader, Davis has served
DCC as its Board Chairman. He says, “The community college
has really been an asset to this area, to economic development.
The people at the college are outstanding.” In
education, Davis has also served Averett University on its Advisory Board.
Currently, among many civic organizational responsibilities, he is on the
Advisory Board of the Danville Life Saving Crew.
A former chairman of the Danville Area Chamber of
Commerce, Davis has served on the boards of DPC Community Foundation, Piedmont
Professional Baseball, Danville YMCA, and Tuscarora County Club.
The fourth honoree, Wayne Foster, graduate of Danville
Technical Institute, a DCC predecessor institution, completed his Drafting and
Design degree in 1963.
Working part-time at Corning, Inc. during his college
days led to full employment as a design draftsman after graduation.
Employment kept Foster, a former Richmond resident, in the local area.
It was to keep him in Danville for his entire career—a career that saw
him continuously add skills and responsibilities as equipment and mold designer,
supervisor of mold and machine shop and team support representative for the
Precision Lens Product Line.
Foster says, “I enjoyed everything I ever did at DTI.
The program was well-developed. I didn’t know what to
do with my life. DTI was there at the right time.
DTI improved my work ethic, which served well at Corning where we often
worked 50 hour weeks.” Corning “was a wonderful place to
work. I enjoyed everything I ever did,” says Foster, who in
1977 became Project Engineer at the local Corning plant.
During Foster’s 35 year career, he served on DCC’s
Advisory Board for Drafting and Design from the late 1980s.
Upon his retirement from the advisory board, he was honored by the board for his
years of contributions.
Dr. Carlyle Ramsey, DCC president, says, “Alumni awards
at DCC are to be an ongoing recognition of individuals whose lives demonstrate
exemplary contributions to their communities, chosen careers, and often Danville
Community College. We are justly proud of the first four recipients who are
examples to all of us concerning the value of dedication and leadership.”