I have also served on the boards of a number of community organizations, especially those interested in history, preservation, or historical tourism. With several of my colleagues I have been involved in starting our new Center for Regional History and Culture, which should help us more systematically serve the needs of teachers, researchers, and preservationists in northwest Georgia. The college clearly benefits when we are seen in the community playing a responsible civic role. Dr. Beggs used to tell us that anyone on the public payroll should regard himself as a public servant and that we should be ambassadors from KSU to the community twenty-four hours a day. I have always agreed with these admonitions and have found community service extremely rewarding.
Few things are more professionally satisfying than public speaking.
What more could a faculty member want than a receptive audience, grateful for whatever we tell them and with no papers to grade afterwards. So far, over two hundred interviews have been taped by students, colleagues, and myself. Through external funding, I have been able to pay to have all these interviews transcribed. As quickly as I can find time, I am editing, binding, and placing them in the Bentley Rare Book Gallery and in the Georgia Room of the main Cobb County Public Library. The two largest series are with a diverse group of Cobb countians and with participants in the North Georgia carpet industry, the latter largely the work of Randy Patton and a number of students.