Robyn Miles / Daily News
Charles Hudson, right, was surprised with a cake Wednesday to mark his 60th anniversary in the LaGrange Rotary Club. At left is his son, Charles Hudson Jr.
Charles Hudson, right, was surprised with a cake Wednesday to mark his 60th anniversary in the LaGrange Rotary Club. At left is his son, Charles Hudson Jr.
“It’s a milestone in a life dedicated to service,” said club member and county historian Clark Johnson, who recited the 83-year-old Hudson’s long list of accomplishments in the club and the community.
Hudson has been a president, vice president and director in the Rotary Club, earning the highest honors from the local, state and international Rotary organizations. The late Gardner Newman also had 60 years in the Rotary Club and the late Pearce Cleaveland had four more than that.
The club met in the former Colonial Hotel on Ridley Avenue when Hudson first became a member on Sept. 1, 1950. His father-in-law, Fuller E. Callaway Jr., used to initiate new members by having them point a finger on top of their heads, then twirl around while singing, “I’m a little prairie flower growing wilder by the hour.”
Hudson was educated in LaGrange, the Georgia Military Academy and Auburn University, and served in the Navy during World War II. He returned home and served as chairman of nearly every board imaginable.
He became a deacon at First Baptist Church on the Square and founded what became Hammond-Hudson-Holder Insurance.
He served on the Georgia Board of Corrections for 24 years, including two terms as chairman, and was a founding member of the Troup County Historical Society and Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum.
He was on the board of West Georgia Medical Center, the LaGrange Board of Education, the Callaway and Fuller E. Callaway foundations, and LaGrange College, among others.
Millennium Park and the Charles D. Hudson Natatorium at LaGrange College are named in his honor.
He was married for 54 years to the late Ida Cason Callaway, and their four children – Jane Alice Craig, Ellen Harris, Charles Hudson Jr. and Ida Russell – along with granddaughter Meredith Key were on hand for Wednesday’s celebration at Highland Country Club.
“Even without his thousand other services both public and private, his work in Rotary Club alone is worthy of praise,” Johnson said, noting that Hudson helped the club exceed its fundraising goals for fighting polio and providing scholarships, and helped establish the Rotary Club of LaGrange Foundation.
Hudson has recommended a lot of people for membership in the Rotary Club, including its first two female members, Kaye Minchew and Charis Acree.
“It’s been a great privilege and he really sets a good example about being involved and dedicated to the community,” said Minchew, executive director of the Troup County Archives and Legacy Museum on Main, who was hired by Hudson in 1982.
Former LaGrange College President Stuart Gulley was on hand for the occasion, along with another former president, Walter Y. Murphy, and current President Dan McAlexander.
“I know for a fact he always did everything he assumed an obligation for in a first-class way,” Murphy said of his longtime friend and colleague.
Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 235.
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