GAA Honors Three Alumni for Outstanding Service

Posted on May 7, 2016

The UNC General Alumni Association honored three alumni on Saturday for their outstanding service to the University and to the association.

Recipients of the 2016 Distinguished Service Medals are John Burress III ’58, retired president of a construction machinery business; Charlie Loudermilk ’50, retired owner of Aaron Rents; and Jordy Whichard ’79, former publisher and editor of the Greenville Daily Reflector.

The medals were presented at the GAA’s Annual Alumni Luncheon during spring reunion weekend. The association has awarded the medals since 1978 to alumni and others who have provided outstanding service to the association or the University.

Burress, of Winston-Salem, has supported many aspects of the University. An original supporter of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in the 1980s, he was recruited to be a founding member of its board of visitors. He also has served on UNC’s Board of Visitors and the board of UNC’s Institute of the Arts and Humanities. An early contributor to the construction of the Dean E. Smith Center, he was elected president of the Educational Foundation. He served on the University’s Bicentennial Steering Committee and holds emeritus status on the Kenan-Flagler Business School board of visitors. He also has served on the GAA Board of Directors. In 2001, UNC’s Board of Trustees honored him with its highest honor, the William R. Davie Award.

Loudermilk, of Atlanta, has served on the board of visitors for UNC and Kenan-Flagler Business School. He was a member of the Carolina First Campaign Committee. He received the William R. Davie Award in 2000, the athletics department’s Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy’s Leadership of Distinction Award and, from Kenan-Flagler, the Alumni Merit Award. One of his gifts made possible the Loudermilk Center for Excellence, in Kenan Stadium, through which some 800 student-athletes a year can access strength-and-conditioning training, academic support, student services and the Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy. He helped fund construction of the McColl Building at Kenan-Flagler and Loudermilk Hall at the Rizzo Center.

Whichard, of Greenville, has served on the UNC Health Care System, as president of the School of Media and Journalism Foundation board and as a trustee for UNC’s Center for Public Television. He is a former chair of the GAA board. Whichard also has taken on special assignments for the University. One notable example was in 2009 when Whichard, a member of Phi Gamma Delta at UNC, led a comprehensive review of the fraternity system that brought about several reforms aimed at maintaining student safety and strengthening governance.

List of past Distinguished Service Medal recipients.

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