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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2003

Three to receive Birmingham-Southern College's top alumni award

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Three Birmingham-Southern College alumni will receive the college's Distinguished Alumni Award at annual Alumni Reunion Weekend festivities April 12.

Honored this year by the BSC National Alumni Association for career accomplishments, community involvement, and contributions to Birmingham-Southern will be the Hon. James Garrett of Birmingham, a 1967 graduate and retired circuit court judge, 10th Judicial Court of Alabama; Dr. Richard deShazo of Brandon, Miss., a 1967 graduate and professor and chair, Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center; and Rev. Florence Wates Pert of New York City, a 1951 graduate and retired senior associate pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church.

Garrett, a graduate of the Cumberland School of Law who also studies at the National Judicial College and the Northwestern School of Law, served as circuit judge from 1980 until his retirement in 2002 and presided over the 2001 and 2002 trials resulting in convictions in the 1963 bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He previously served as a municipal judge in the Municipal Court of the City of Vestavia Hills and as deputy district attorney for the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office. He also served in the Birmingham branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Graduating from the University of Alabama School of Medicine, deShazo held fellowships in adult and pediatric allergy and immunology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He has also held academic medicine positions at the University of South Alabama Medical Center, Tulane University School of Medicine, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He has authored more than 150 scientific papers in the field of immunology and has served on editorial boards of seven professional journals.

A native of Birmingham, Pert received her divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary, where she is a member of the board of trustees. In 1978, she became the first woman to preach from the pulpit of the Marble Collegiate Church of New York City and in 1987, was the first woman ordained in the 360-year history of the Collegiate Churches. She was previously a member of the staff of The Peale Center for Christian Living and director of leadership development at Guideposts magazine.