Preservation Woodstock Names Citizens of the Year

WOODSTOCK, GA -- Preservation Woodstock has named the recipients of its Barbara G. Ingram Citizen of the Year Award.

Smith and Nina Johnston have been chosen by the organization to receive the award for their efforts to preserve the city's heritage.

Smith, a native of Woodstock, is the son of Smith L. Johnston, Jr. and Christine Booth Johnston.

His grandfathers were Smith L. Johnston and E. T. Booth, a well known educator whose name is probably best known for the middle school that bears it.

Johnston attended Woodstock Elementary School, graduated from Cherokee High School in 1927 and from the Emory University School of Medicine in 1981.

He has been with NASA since 1994, serving for many of those years as flight surgeon and as physician to astronauts and their families.

He and his wife, Nina Sherman Johnston, are currently part-time residents of Woodstock. Over the past few months, they have become actively involved with the restoration and re-location of the 1940 Main Street house built by E.T. Booth and his wife Lucy Gibson Booth.

The house -- whose former location is now home to MadLife Stage & Studios -- has been moved and now faces Market Street. Johnston has also purchased other properties in town, and hopes to continue to be active in preservation projects.

The award will be presented to the Johnstons on Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Park at City Center following the city's annual Christmas parade.

He will be the 20th recipient of the award, which was established in memory of Barbara G. Ingram.

She was a founding member of the Woodstock Centennial Commission, now referred to as Preservation Woodstock, and worked tirelessly with other members to plan and carry out a 1997 celebration of the city’s 100th anniversary.

However, she died in December 1998, just before the year-long commemoration began. For more information about Preservation Woodstock, visit its website.

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Image via Main Street Woodstock