Jerry Newman receives Regents’ Hall of Fame Award

Columbus businessman and GSW graduate Jerry Newman was selected as a Regents’ Hall of Fame Award recipient at the 10th Annual Regents’ Salute to Education. This event is organized each year by the University System of Georgia Foundation.

Each System campus is asked to nominate alumni to be honored. An external panel named by the USG Foundation evaluates alumni nominations. Newman, a member of GSW’s 1959 graduating class, is the third Georgia Southwestern alum to be named a Regents’ Hall of Fame Award recipient since 2008. Former first lady Rosalynn Carter was honored in 2011, and the late Griffin B. Bell, former U.S. Attorney General, was honored at the 2008 celebration.

“Jerry Newman is a delightful raconteur, an astute businessman, and a dedicated public servant,” said GSW President Kendall Blanchard. “He and his wife are two of the most generous people I have ever known. Georgia Southwestern is privileged to be able to count him as an alum. The award and the recognition at the Gala were well deserved.”

Georgia Southwestern alum Jerry Newman (left) was presented with a Regents’ Hall of Fame Award by Don Leebern III (right), president of Georgia Crown Distributing Company, the presenting sponsor of the annual Regents’ Salute to Education.

After earning a degree in English and journalism from Georgia Southwestern College, Newman worked as a news reporter and political contributor in the newspaper business. In the 1960s he began working in real estate, and in 1970, he founded Columbus’s Park Properties, Inc.

Newman is a life trustee on the GSW Foundation’s Board of Trustees and has been awarded the GSW Leewynn J. Finklea Outstanding Alumni Award and the Aeolian Award for lifetime achievement and community involvement. Newman and his wife, Marjorie Ann, were given GSW’s Excellence in Philanthropy Award in 2000. In 2006, Southwestern presented Newman with an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities at commencement.

More than 600 individuals representing the USG’s 31 institutions, supporters, donors, alumni and businesses attended the event. Among the crowd were state elected officials, including the governor, members of the Board of Regents and presidents from the USG’s colleges and universities.