TAKE A TRIP around the world without leaving downtown Norcross! The City of Norcross, along with presenting sponsor Gateway85 CID, presents the Gateway International Food & Music Festival on September 14 from 3 – 7 p.m. at Lillian Webb Park. Among the performance groups appearing will be the La Danza de los Viejitos of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. This event will showcase the region’s best multicultural talent and ethnic foods while highlighting the rich cultural contributions of Gwinnett’s diverse communities. From the traditional performances of Bulgaria, India, Laos and more to the authentic flavors of El Salvador, Thailand, Bolivia and others, that what once could be described as “exotic” is shown to be local in a whole new way as both immigrant and U.S.-born residents come together, spreading the spirit of unity as they share pieces of their home countries. Learn more online about this event at aplacetoimagine.com.
TODAY’S FOCUS: 75th Anniversary of Joan Glancy Hospital Is Feature of Duluth Festival
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Gwinnett Must Be More Urgent In Planning for Mass Transit
SPOTLIGHT: Hayes Family Automotive Group
FEEDBACK: Remembers Previous Times with Nostalgic Feelings; Where To Now
UPCOMING: Peachtree Corners’ Curiosity Lab Partners with Georgia Tech and Delta
NOTABLE: Snellville Offering Adult Education for GED at New City Hall Space
RECOMMENDED: The Favourite (2018 movie starring Emma Stone)
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Businessman J.B. Fuqua’s Best Investment Ever Was for 25 Cents
MYSTERY PHOTO: Can You Figure Out Where This “Balanced Rock” Is Located?
LAGNIAPPE: Gwinnett Animal Shelter Gets $50,000 Grant for Mobile Unit
CALENDAR: Norcross Plans 9/11 Observance at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday
75th anniversary of Joan Glancy Hospital is feature of Duluth festival
This was the first clinic.
By Kathryn Parsons Willis
DULUTH, Ga. | The untimely deaths of two children—Olin Burnett, the six-year-old son of a Duluth dairy worker, and Joan Glancy, the four-year-old daughter of a wealthy Detroit industrialist—are, in a big way, responsible for Gwinnett’s first hospital.
Willis
Henry Burnett worked at Irvindale Dairy in Duluth when his son, Olin, died unexpectedly. He turned to the dairy’s owner, Dick Hull, who stepped in to help. While getting burial clothes at Parsons store, he talked with Kate Parsons and was shocked to learn that there were no medical facilities in the whole area. He asked her to get the Duluth people together the next week.
At the meeting at the schoolhouse, Hull asked the people of Duluth to help him start some kind of clinic. Inspired by Dick Hull, the group found a small house in downtown Duluth, owned by the school system, which agreed to let them use it. The citizens of Duluth, black and white alike, got together and remodeled the house. The clinic was opened later that year, in 1941. Although the South was still segregated, Dick Hull insisted, and the Duluth people agreed, that there be equal facilities and equal treatment for all its patients.
Hull told his father-in-law, General A.R. Glancy, head of the Pontiac Division of General Motors in Detroit, what the people were trying to do. Glancy’s four-year-old daughter, Joan, died 17 years earlier because health care was not available where they were on vacation. He sent a sizable donation to Duluth in memory of Joan. And thus was born the idea of Joan Glancy Hospital!
The clinic was an immediate success, but all soon realized that it wasn’t enough. General Glancy challenged the Duluth community to buy land, clear it, and dig a well, and then he would build them a hospital.
Second Glancy Clinic, 1944
On Sunday, July 9, 1944, Joan Glancy Memorial Hospital was dedicated. Duluth had a big celebration honoring the Glancys and all the children who had been born in the local clinic. The first baby born there, Glancy Jones Dunn, who now lives in Snellville, will be a special guest in the Duluth Fall Festival parade this year.
In the years since there have been many changes in Duluth’s healthcare. In 2006, a new hospital, GMC-Duluth, was opened, and the old Joan Glancy Hospital became a rehab and wellness center. The 75th Anniversary of Joan Glancy will be featured in the Festival Parade.
Now the Gwinnett Hospital System has merged with Northside Hospital. Duluth citizens are pleased with the new name of the old hospital – Northside Gwinnett Joan Glancy. This name pays tribute to its history of helping improve the lives of Gwinnett County residents for 75 years. Now, with this new partnership, the Joan Glancy facility is on track to continue this mission for many years to come.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Gwinnett must be more urgent in planning for mass transit
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 10, 2019 | In our family, it was those children in China that my parents mentioned.
“Eat your peas. Do you know that there are poor, starving children in China that would be so thankful if they had your food, like your peas, to eat? Don’t waste food. Eat up. You are so lucky that you don’t live like the poor starving people in China.”
Perhaps your family had a variation to this, depending on where you live. Maybe you were told about the “poor starving children” in South America, or Africa, or the Yukon, who didn’t have those awful green peas (or broccoli or eggplant) that we were served on our plates. (To this day, we’re no fan of broccoli or eggplant.)
Now that I think about it, I was never admonished to eat my wieners. They disappeared before my folks could think of the Chinese children.
Today parents are telling their children less about food, but more about competition. Not only must children study to improve their grades because “you have to compete with your classmates,” but also “You are not just competing with people in your own school, but all across America, and even with students in China.”
Parents: don’t tell me you haven’t told your children that.
Let’s move from families to Gwinnett County as a whole. Today our county is not only competing with Cobb or Chatham or Cherokee County for jobs, but is competing with Holland or New Zealand, and yes, with China and Korea, for jobs.
We are also competing in another way. We are competing with the way our people get to work. And right now, Gwinnett’s scorecard on mass transit shows a big zero wins, and three losses, as it has turned down improving its links to mass transportation (as defined by MARTA), three times.
That’s why a story out of Phoenix, Arizona needs your attention. The suburban part of Phoenix voted recently to expand its suburban light rail transit system by an unexpectedly overwhelming margin. Look at other areas who compete with us:
- Houston has greatly revamped its bus service.
- Salt Lake City has built a 19 mile north-south line (1999) and expanded transit ever since.
- In Los Angeles, Between 1980-2008, voters approved three transportation sales tax measures for transit and rail.
- But in Durham, it turned down plans for a light rail system, as have Nashville and Baltimore.
Canada also competes with us. An item in Vox Media notes: “Compare, say, Portland to Vancouver, or Salt Lake to Edmonton, or Des Moines to Winnipeg. Culturally and economically, they’re very similar cities, but in each case the Canadian city has two to five times as much transit service per capita.”
So today, while we in Metro Atlanta, but especially in Gwinnett, piddle with the way we need to move people from home to work, or from home to recreation or to a session at the Atlanta Symphony, we show little urgency about this.
Yet if we are to compete with other cities, just in the United States, we must address this issue and move toward having a victory lap with a reasonable solution. After all, we are competing for jobs with not only Phoenix, but Houston, or Shanghai. If we are not careful Singapore, Amsterdam and London will forge ahead of us. They’re the real threats now.
Makes you wonder: do parents in Hong Kong say: “Eat your bok choy! Think of the poor starving American children who don’t have food like that?”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Hayes Family Automotive Group
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s sponsor is Hayes Family Automotive Group with Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC. Mike, Tim and Ted Hayes of Lawrenceville and Gainesville with Terry Hayes of Baldwin invite you into their showrooms to look over their line-up of automobiles and trucks. Hayes has been in the automotive business for over 40 years, and is North Georgia’s oldest family-owned dealerships. The family is the winner of the 2002 Georgia Family Business of the Year Award. We know that you have high expectations, and as a car dealer we enjoy the challenge of meeting and exceeding those standards each and every time. Allow us to demonstrate our commitment to excellence!
- Check the web sites at: www.hayeschrysler.com or www.hayeschevrolet.com or www.hayesgmcars.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Remembers previous times with nostalgic feelings; Where to now?
Editor, the Forum:
As long as I can remember, it was one nation under God, indivisible. Raised in a community of classic “melting pot” scenario, the people from everywhere still basically supported a reality of a positive nation doing basically good things. This has become an extinct concept for a major portion of the country.
It’s not hard to see the division of the nation into completely divergent perceptions of the country. Camps are formed and forums are gone. Government entities are at war with each other in power struggles and court challenges.
Other nations are in similar struggles of some sort. Is this how our future shapes up in distorted conflicts wrenching groups perceptual struggle? Any gain is blown out of proportion.
I suggest turning everything off. Go talk to anyone and find out what they care for and what scares them. Share your points. Coffee, wine, vodka, etc. go well with this. Bagpipes are exceptionally enjoyable. Dogs are great. Gardening is rewarding. But so many never seem to enjoy these as before.
— Byron Gilbert, Duluth
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
Peachtree Corners’ Curiosity Lab partners with Georgia Tech and Delta
Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners is forming a strategic collaboration with Georgia Tech and Delta Air Lines to advance autonomous vehicle and infrastructure research. Curiosity Lab is a 5G enabled autonomous vehicle and smart city living laboratory located in Peachtree Corners.
As Georgia furthers its position as a top testbed of autonomous mobility and smart city technology, Delta and Curiosity Lab’s collaboration will provide critical seed funding for Georgia Tech researchers. Equally important, the researchers will have access to the Lab’s now-building 1.5 mile autonomous vehicle test track and living laboratory. Curiosity Lab features dedicated fiber, smart poles and a network operations center for researchers to track and trend data from connected internet-of-things (IoT) devices.
Betsy Plattenburg, executive director of Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corner says: “Our 5G-enabled living laboratory will give Georgia Tech researchers the opportunity to push the frontier of emerging technology in a real-world setting that is almost impossible to replicate in a closed lab. Curiosity Lab also will provide those researchers an opportunity to collaborate with other industry leaders and focus their research on immediate challenges and results.”
Debra Lam, managing director for smart cities and inclusive innovation at Georgia Tech, says: “This is a wonderful example of industry-university-local government coming together to advance innovative solutions to the built environment and mobility. Providing access to such infrastructure will help our researchers test new technologies and further our mission of serving our community through innovation.”
Gil West, Delta’s Chief Operating Officer, adds: “Driving the leading edge of emerging technology – like we’ve done with biometrics by launching the first fully biometric terminal in the United States – means Delta can help shape how industry adopts it. Autonomous vehicle technology is one of those innovations we see as having the potential to improve employee safety, the customer experience and operational performance, and this partnership will help us explore all of those possibilities.”
As autonomous vehicle research advances across the world, Delta sees potential applications for autonomous cars, trucks or buses at airports and beyond. For example, autonomous vehicles could help customers make tight connections across an airport, they could deliver delayed baggage to customers or transport aircraft parts to airports.
West added that this program is an important part of the global airline’s strategy to invest in solutions that empower customers and employees, reduce the stresses of travel and redefine flying over the next five years and decades to come.
Peachtree Corners plans birthday bash to honor its founder, Paul Duke
Duke
A birthday celebration is being planned in honor of the man known as the father of Peachtree Corners, Paul Duke. It will be on Saturday, September 28 from 6 to 9 p.m. It will be put on the by the Arts Council of Peachtree Corners to raise money for a public art installation.
The event will be at the Peachtree Corners Town Green, 5140 Town Center Boulevard. Admission is free.
It will be a “Speakeasy Bash” as attendees will get to try their hand at the blackjack or roulette tables and by participating in the silent auction.
- In true speakeasy fashion, space is limited to those who pre-register. Register at https://www.freshtix.com/events/paul-dukes-birthday-bash.
Snellville offering adult education for GED at new city hall space
Adult education classes are ongoing in Snellville City Hall’s education and business space, kicking off a new era of citizen engagement in the city. Gwinnett Technical College is offering General Education Diploma classes in the newly remodeled space on the second floor of City Hall. Half of the second floor of Snellville City Hall was renovated this year to bolster local education and business opportunities. Those interested in registering for the Gwinnett Tech program can complete an application at www.gwinnetttech.edu/fm/registration/regform/<http://www.gwinnetttech.edu/fm/registration/regform/>. Gwinnett Tech is continuing to offer classes during its next session which begins Oct. 14. Gwinnett Tech is also offering GED classes at South Gwinnett High School.
The Favourite (2018 movie starring Emma Stone)
From Karen Burnette Garner, Robesonia, Penn.: In the early 1700s, ailing Queen Anne rules England, or appears to. Her confidante, Sarah Churchill, effectively rules in her stead, advising her country’s leaders on policy. At war with France, England is in need of money for troops, and Sarah is promoting a land tax that is resisted by the wealthy landowners. Sarah’s ill-treated cousin, Abigail, serves as a scullery maid, dreaming of finding her place among royalty. Abigail becomes a pawn to the wealthy landowners, and informs on the inner sanctum of the queen. The dynamics between the increasingly ill Queen and her courtiers, her sexual relationships with both Sara and Abigail, and the desperate measures taken for royal success are on display. This very adult movie, loosely based on historical fact, is fascinating. A cautionary tale, to be careful what you wish for.
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (100 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Businessman J.B. Fuqua’s best investment ever was for 25 cents
J.B. Fuqua was a self-made businessman who started with a handmade ham radio and built a multimillion-dollar empire that included televisionand radiostations and nearly two dozen other companies.
Fuqua
He was as successful in politics as he was in business. As chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, he ran Carl Sanders‘s successful campaign for governor in 1962 and was instrumental in Jimmy Carter‘s early political career. In his later years, Fuqua became well known as a philanthropist, having donated more than $100 million to the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Piedmont Hospital, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and other worthy causes.
John Brooks Elam, the son of John B. and Ruth Fuqua Elam, was born on June 26, 1918, on a tobacco farm in Prince Edward County, Va. His mother died two months after he was born, and he was raised by his maternal grandparents, who changed his last name to Fuqua (pronounced “few-kwa”).
With no playmates nearby, Fuqua spent much of his time alone reading books. While his classmates were reading novels for young people, Fuqua devoured books on banking, finance, and business. Fuqua’s life changed one Saturday afternoon when, at about the age of 14, he tuned in to a Richmond, Va., radio station and heard a chief engineer who was teaching a course in Morse code.
At the end of the program, the engineer announced that for 25 cents, listeners could order a booklet entitled How to Become an Amateur Radio Operator. Fuqua made what he later said was the best investment of his life and soon began assembling a simple ham radio. His knowledge of radios and Morse code led him into his first job as a radio operator in the merchant marine, on the freighter SS Sagadahoc. After completing his tour with the merchant marine, Fuqua went to work as a temporary engineer at radio station WIS in Columbia, S.C., and eventually was promoted to chief engineer at the company’s Charleston, S.C., station.
In 1940, at the age of 21, he drove to Augusta and persuaded three businessmen he had never met to lend him $10,000 to build a radio station. He launched WGAC by using other people’s money, a practice that would serve him well in his future business career. As an ambitious young entrepreneur in Augusta, Fuqua attracted the attention of businessmen who were willing to become his partners in other enterprises. These included the Royal Crown Bottling Company, WJBF radio and television stations, Claussen’s Bakeries, and Willingham Automobile Finance Company.
(To be continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Can you figure out where this “balanced rock” is located?
No doubt people call the formation in this Mystery Photo something like “balanced rock” or so, though that’s not the name. Now try and figure out where this photo was taken, and send your ideas to elliott@brack.net, being sure to include your hometown.
The Mystery Photo in the previous edition was sent in by Ross Lenhart of Pawleys Island, S.C. As identified by George Graf of Palmyra, Va., it is a statue called by several names, including the “Start Westward Monument in Muskingum Park, Marietta, Ohio. That was the first town settled in Ohio, as captured today in a best selling book by David McCullough called The Pioneers. Graf adds: “Marietta was settled in 1788, when General Rufus Putnam led 47 former Revolutionary War officers in a crude flatboat to the rivers’ junction, where they built a fortified settlement.”
Allan Peel, San Antonio, Tex.: “Today’s mystery photo is of a sandstone sculpture created by Gutzon Borglum and located in Muskingum Park in Marietta, Ohio, the oldest city in Ohio. The sculpture is a memorial to the ‘Start Westward of the United States’ and was dedicated in July 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as ‘a tribute to those farsighted pioneers who journeyed here from New England in 1788 and established Marietta as the first permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory.
“The sculpture Gutzon Borglum is best known for his work in creating the monumental Mt. Rushmore sculpture of four U.S. presidents in South Dakota. Less known however (except perhaps by those from Georgia) was his initial involvement and failed attempts at creating the first iteration of a carving honoring the memories of the leaders of the Confederacy on the face of Stone Mountain in Georgia.”
Also recognizing the statue were Lou Camerio, Lilburn and Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill: “Marrietta, Ohio, was founded in 1788, is the oldest city in Ohio and the first American” settlement in the Northwest Territory.”.
Gwinnett Animal Shelter gets $50,000 grant for mobile unit
Best Friends Animal Society has awarded Gwinnett County Animal Welfare and Enforcement Division a $50,000 grant to help keep animals out of the shelter and in loving homes. The grant aims to manage and ultimately decrease the number of shelter intakes by at least 20 percent in 2019 – 2020. The $50,000 Best Friends grant will be used to help operate a new mobile unit that will remotely perform vaccinations, spay/neutering, microchips and provide educational assistance that will encourage people to keep their pets.From left are Nichole Dandrea, social media community manager for Best Friends Animal Society; Carrie Ducote, senior manager for the Southeast Region for Best Friends Animal Society; Chandler Giddes, assistant manager of Gwinnett Animal Welfare and Enforcement; and Vernon Sawyer, assistant manager of Gwinnett Animal Welfare and Enforcement.
Authors’ Visit: hear Lynn Cullen in conversation with Patti Callahan Henry at Peachtree Corners City Hall on Tuesday, September 10 at 7:30 p.m. Cullen is the national bestselling author of Mrs. Poe, a National Public Radio 2013 Great Read. She recently released her latest novel, The Sisters of Summit Avenue. Patti Callahan Henry is the bestselling author of 15 novels including the historical fiction Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Her latest contemporary novel is The Favorite Daughter.
Elder law specialist Brannon-Napier LLC will be at Temple Beth David (1885 McGee Road, Snellville) on Tuesday, September 10 at 7 p.m. to discuss preparing the various documents important to seniors and families with older parents. That includes wills, trusts, powers of attorney, advanced directives for health care and other options. Rabbi Jesse Charynwill also discuss preparing an ethical will.There will be time for questions and answers. Admission is $10.
9/11 Remembrance in Norcross will be at 8:25 a.m. on Sept. 11 in Betty Mauldin Park, adjacent to the City Hall. Pay tribute to those impacted by this tragedy. The event will include a ringing of the bell at 8:45 a.m. to mark the time the first tower was hit along with some words from Mayor Craig Newton and patriotic music. Norcross’ own police, fire unit, and Masonic Lodge will be in attendance.
9/11 Remembrance ceremony will be on September 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. The event will be at the Gwinnett Fallen Heroes Memorial, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville, in front of the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center. Join the Department of Fire and Emergency Services as county officials reflect on the importance of remembering the events and honoring the men and women of public safety.
Juried Art Exhibit at the Tannery Row Artist Colony in Buford begins September 14 and continues until November 1. The opening reception will be September 14 from 5-8 p.m. Includes a variety of media, including painting, pastel, colored pencil, pen and ink, mixed media, printmaking, fibre arts, photography, digital art and three dimensional art, including ceramics, pottery and found object sculpture. The Colony is located at 554 West Main Street in Buford.
Relationship between the United States and Mexico is the subject of a discussion led byAlexander Wisnoski, III, PhD, on the current dynamics between the United States and Mexico, specifically mentioning reasons for increased friction between the two, and how both countries view their relationship today. This will be on September 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lawrenceville Public Library Branch, 1001 Lawrenceville Highway. The program is presented in partnership with the University of North Georgia.
GwinnettForum is provided to you at no charge every Tuesday and Friday.
Meet our team
- Editor and publisher: Elliott Brack, 770-840-1003
- Managing editor: Betsy Brack
- Roving photographer: Frank Sharp
- Contributing columnist: Jack Bernard
- Contributing columnist: Debra Houston
- Contributing columnist: George Wilson
More
- Location: We are located in Suite 225, 40 Technology Park, Peachtree Corners, Ga. 30092.
- Work with us: If you would like to serve as an underwriter, click here to learn more.
Subscriptions to GwinnettForum are free.
- Click to subscribe.
- Unsubscribe. We hope you’ll keep receiving the great news and information from GwinnettForum, but if you need to unsubscribe, go to this page and unsubscribe in the appropriate box.
© 2019, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.
Follow Us