GHC To Host Commencement On May 12 In Rome

ROME, GA — Georgia Highlands College will hold its commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 12 at The Forum River Center in downtown Rome. The college expects to have 894 students receiving 906 diplomas, with a number of those students receiving more than one.

The nursing pinning ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. May 11 at First Baptist of Cartersville. The faculty has chosen Renva Harmon Watterson as the 2018 Mace Bearer and Carla Bryam Patterson as the recipient of the Wesley C. Walraven Faculty Award.

The Honorable Bobby Lee Cook will give the commencement address, and Student Government Association President David Hill will speak on behalf of the student body. Regent Sarah-Elizabeth Reed will also bring greetings from the Board of Regents. The Honorary Faculty Marshal will be Kristie Kemper and Donnie Denson will speak on behalf of GHC alumni.

On the floor of the Arena will be reserved seating for staff and invited guests. Free parking is available at the Third Avenue Parking Deck (adjacent to the Forum) and West 3rd Street parking lot (across the bridge from the Forum). Shuttle service will be available throughout the day from Broad Street, all the parking decks, and West 3rd Street.

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Cook is a trial lawyer from Summerville, Georgia. He has practiced law since the late 1940s and founded the law firm Cook & Connelly in 1949 with the late A. Cecil Palmour. Cook attended Gordon Military College and the University of Alabama before earning his law degree from Vanderbilt University. He has bar admissions in multiple court systems with the ability to practice law in the U.S. District Courts, the Northern, Middle & Southern Districts of Georgia and Eastern District of Tennessee, the U.S. Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, and all Courts in the State of Georgia.

Cook has held office and served in the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate, as well as a Georgia State Court Judge. He has been honored with numerous awards, including the American Academy of Achievement Award in Advocacy, an Honorary Juris Doctor Degree from John Marshall School of Law, and four lifetime achievement awards.

Cook is reputed to have been the inspiration for the television series Matlock’s main character, Ben Matlock, which starred Andy Griffith as a Georgia attorney. In Cook’s long career, he holds a record jury acquittal rate of 90 percent, and he has represented clients from a wide spectrum of the famous, the infamous, and the unknown, including Bert Lance in a civil matter, Wayne Williams in post-conviction proceedings, and the Rockefellers and Carnegies in eminent domain cases.

Today, Cook’s law firm focuses on state and federal trials in complex civil and criminal litigation. You can click here for more information about Saturday's commencement ceremony.

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