In the summer of 1974, my wife, Sherry, and four year old daughter, McCall, and myself moved to Calhoun, Gordon County, Georgia to put down our family roots and we have been here ever since.  In addition to our son, Forrest, being born here in 1976, my daughter married her college sweetheart, George Govignon, and returned with him to begin their lives in this wonderful community and they have blessed our family with two granddaughters, Campbell who is almost seven years old, and Catherine who turned three last February, so our family has made the foothills of Northwest Georgia our permanent home. 

            Prior to moving to the Cherokee Circuit, I graduated in 1968 from Vanderbilt University and since that was during the Vietnam conflict, I joined the United States Army and received my officer’s commission from Infantry O.C.S.  My first duty assignment before Vietnam was the Honor Guard at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia where fate was kind and I met my partner for life, an elementary school teacher in Columbus, Sherry Newsome of Opelika, Alabama.  Following my combat tour in Vietnam, I went to law school at UGA in Athens where I graduated in 1974 a month before moving to our new home.

            I began my professional career with Robert L. Collins, Jr., a local attorney, but not too long after, I became this Circuit’s first Assistant District Attorney serving from 1976 to 1980.  I returned to private practice with Tommy Shanahan and during that time was appointed the local attorney for the Gordon County Board of Education and also for the City of Calhoun.  On November 3, 1992 after receiving over 12,900 votes, I was elected your District Attorney, taking office on December 10, 1992 and the rest is history.