Bill Tweedell - No Longer Dependent on Drugs

Melissa, Bill and HeatherWilliam (Bill) Lynn Tweedell was born in Sugar Valley (Gordon County), GA seventy-one years ago.  His family relocated to Athens, GA when Bill was in the first grade, later moving to nearby Bogart when Bill was in second grade.  His father was a skilled stone mason who built rock homes and his mother a homemaker.  The family eventually returned to their roots to reside in Resaca, GA back in Gordon County.  Bill graduated from Calhoun High School in 1962 and the University of Georgia in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy.  His degree included marrying his wife Jo Ann in June 1967.

Young BillBill’s professional career began with a stint in Toccoa, GA where he toiled for Pruitt’s Pharmacy as a rural pill pusher until March 1971.  While working at Pruitt’s in Toccoa, Bill met Jimmy Carter as he campaigned for governor of Georgia.  Later while working for Eckerd Drugs in Athens, Billy Carter came there.

After working in Winder, GA, Bill self-deported to work for Eckerd’s Drugs in Athens, GA in January 1972.  Bill became convinced that if he worked for a pharmacy, this insured that the pharmacy would be sold.  During his tenure as a pharmacist in the Athens area, he navigated through five buyout mergers with name changes and sometimes being relocated from one store to another but remaining in the Athens, GA area before retiring in 2010 from Rite Aid.

Bill and familyBill and Jo Ann have three children – son, Kenneth, daughter, Melissa and daughter, Heather.  Young Kenneth achieved family notoriety when he responded to a grade school exercise that his father’s work was to “sell drugs”.  This led to the principal’s office for a further explanation.  After Kenneth was older, he did something even worse, he became a politician.  He is on the city council for Winterville, GA.  Jo Ann suffered a heart attack in August 2010, and began attending cardiac rehab at St. Mary’s Hospital Wellness Center in Athens.  Bill decided to join her in the exercises and was introduced to a treadmill, his first foray into running.  

Daughter Melissa was into running at the time of her mother’s heart attack.  Bill at age sixty-eight began to run with Melissa.  He entered the Coach Mike 5K in 2012 and placed third in his age group.  His daughter encouraged Bill to participate in more races and he became a fixture in Black Bag and Clover Glove races with younger daughter Heather.  Bill and Heather ran the Butterfly Dreams 5K in 2013 and have continued running together.  Bill achieved over 1,000 points in the Run and See Grand Prix and over 400 points in the Black Bag Race Series in 2014.  In 2015 he is giving Herman Sasser and Jim Latimer stiff competition in the over age 70 geezer division.

Bill’s hobbies beyond obviously running include displaying his vintage 1978 Chevy truck in classic car venues with his son Kenneth.  Bill enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren.  Bill and Jo Ann reside in Hull, Ga near Athens.  Hull is so small that if Bill ever contracts dementia, he cannot get lost!  His favorite races are any at the Sandy Creek Nature Center, and any race where he beats Herman Sasser and Jim Latimer!  Bill encourages race directors to conduct awards in the sequence of starting with the senior members of the running community before awarding winners in the younger age groups.

Look for the profile of Athens senior wonder Marge Finnerty and  on age group leading Herman Sasser. 

Dan Williams - Tireless County Hunter

Dan grew up in Cleveland, Ohio as an “overweight and uncoordinated” son of his clerical worker mother and shop foreman father.  In High School, Daniel excelled in science and band, playing the French horn in the Cleveland All City Band and Ohio Boys Band.  Daniel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and met his wife to be Marty at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio.  Both fled to the promise land of Athens, Georgia where Marty earned a Ph.D. in Freshwater Ecology and Daniel the same degree in Inorganic Chemistry.  Daniel taught in temporary positons at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio and Georgetown University in our nation’s capital before landing a tenure position at what was Kennesaw Junior College in Marietta in 1977.  Staying the course, Dan rose through the ranks to full professor at Kennesaw and helped develop the largest chemistry program in the University System of Georgia.  Dan retired in 2008 but continued to teach part time until 2014.

Dan, now age sixty seven, started running in 1985 when Marty made the “subtle observation that he was obese and told him so”.  Two years of running resulted in being fifty pounds lighter.  Dan set goals of running an officially timed race in every county in Georgia, running a race in every state capital in the USA, the counties in Connecticut, and all the southern provinces of Canada.  Dan has also run in all three counties of Delaware, the state with the fewest number of counties.  In Georgia, Dan focused on “small festival runs, charity races, or lesser known events which allowed him to see a diverse slice of Americana”.  Georgia, being the largest state east of the Mississippi, also has the most counties-159 not counting two historic counties of Milton and Campbell.  The goal was only achieved by self-help in organizing some races where a county had none.  He and Marty most notably organized among others the Polar Bear 5K in 1988 that now is a continuing successful race sponsored by Johnson Ferry Baptist.  Later he and Marty organized and directed the Hiram 7K on the Silver Comet Trail on New Year’s Day in Paulding County which did not have a timed race heretofore.  Counties among others where Daniel had to organize races to achieve his goal were Treutlen, Twiggs, Montgomery, Steward, Webster, Marion, Clay, Calhoun, and Baker.  Daniel sought out multi county races of which there were a few like Al Toll Masters 15K (Bibb-Monroe) and the Boston Mini-marathon (Thomas-Brooks).  The first race of this trek was the Marietta Naval Air Station 5K in 1987 and the 159^th and final county race was a February 2015 Statenville, GA (Echols County) race.  Four other runners have joined Daniel and are emulating his quest calling themselves the “County Hunters”.  They are Clint Watkins of Madison, Jim Scarr of Powder Springs, Matt Crowder of Atlanta and Jim Baldwin of Macon.

Dan with two other county huntersHigh points include the “Run through Hell” in Michigan and running through Helen, GA as a prelude to the Hogpen Hill Climb.  The largest race he had participated in has been the Atlanta Peachtree 10K running with the “equivalent of a small town”.  The smallest was a four person race field in Carson City, Nevada in 22 degree temperature.  Dan has run a race in each of Maryland’s counties along the Mason-Dixon Line and six of the eight counties in the state of Connecticut.  Dan has run marathons and completed the total distances of notable trail runs-The New River Trail in Southern Virginia (58 miles), the Virginia Creeper Trail near Abington, Virginia (34 miles), and the entire distance of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath in Maryland (186 miles).    

Holding his County Hunter ShirtDan’s “times have been slowed, but …enthusiasm hasn’t.  As long as God gives him strength, he will be out on the trail and roads wearing out multiple pairs of running shoes and in the words of the (legendary early 20^th century Scottish runner) Eric Liddell “feeling God’s pleasure ”. 

Bob checking out from the back of the pack.  Watch for the articles on Debbie Schulte and the profile of retired pill pusher and pharmacist Bill Tweedell.           

Bill Davis - In Tune Dawg

Bill describes his childhood physique as “cubbish” and was “sort of OK” in sports growing up in Natchitoches, Louisiana.  He excelled in sports that did not involve endurance, like ping pong and badminton.  Music was in the family genes as Bill’s father was the band director at Northwestern State College (now Northwestern State University of Louisiana).  Bill graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Music and Masters in Music degrees.   While a Jay Hawk, he met his bride of over forty years, Jolene.  Bill completed graduate school at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York earning a Doctors of Music Arts degree.

Bill on left with his brother BobLike many of us in the Vietnam era, the Army decided that Bill should be in tune with the service.  Bill was unable to draw combat pay while stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco.  As a member of the Adjutant General Branch (human resources for you non military types), Bill was selected as the Sixth Army Staff Band Officer.  As Bill described it, he “did a job for the Army that he was qualified to do”.  He traveled in the then Sixth Army area (the northwestern United States) inspecting National Guard and Army Reserve Military Bands.  His new bride also enjoyed being stationed near the ocean, the Sierras, wine country and a multitude of cultural attractions.  The units he inspected were located in prime vacation areas such as Seattle, Phoenix, Portland, Los Angles, Reno and Salt Lake City to name a few.      

Jessica, Katie, Jolene and BillLife after military service found Bill as a full time bassoonist/contrabassoonist with the San Antonio Orchestra.  Bill next became a faculty member of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas (better known as WTAMU or What am you!).   In 1981 Bill accepted a position at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia, relocating his family to Athens.  At UGA he taught bassoon, composition and theory, later becoming involved in the school of music administration. 

Bill retried from UGA a couple of years ago.  Since they are empty nesters Bill and Jolene have been doing a lot of traveling with their trusty pop up trailer camper that they purchased in 2008. Their daughters Jessica and Katie were born in 1984 and 1986 respectively.  Jessica now lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where she is Executive Director of the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra.  Katie works for the Democratic Party of Kansas and resides in Wichita. Bill and Jolene’s favorite trips are those that involve camping and Bill running one or more races.  Their next trip will be in April when Bill turns sixty-five.  They will be heading  to St. Louis, Missouri where Bill will run the St. Louis Marathon.     

Bill started running in 2003 at age 54 after trying to starve off unwanted pounds.  Bill found that races and participating in running series are “milestones” for the greater goal of keeping fit” and the people who run in them are “pretty amazing!” Without naming a favorite race, Bill likes any race at Sandy Creek Park (with or without the “dam hill”).  Bill has completed fourteen marathons with the first being Tybee.  His philosophy is to run the first twenty miles slowly, then run walk the next 5K portion, and finally “walk, shuffle, limp, or crawl the final leg”.  

Bob checking out from the back of the pack.  Look for the profile of Barbara Nasworthy and the profile of youthful senior runner Randy Ballew.

Mitchell Sinyard - Growing on the Run

The Boston 4, Josh Myers, Mitchell Sinyard, Perry Slaughter and Alan BlackElite runner Mitchell Sinyard tends to a three quarter acre garden located across the road from his home on twenty acres he recently purchased from what was his late grandfather’s farm.  The garden produces  squash, okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, and cantaloupes from which his family along with wife Lynn feed themselves.  Daughter Jessica has already left the bread basket by marring and now resides in Concord, GA with two children, daughter Scarlett and son Hayden.  Her brother, fourteen year old son John Mitchell, (they call him by both names) is still garden dependent.  Mitchell’s farming roots run deep having been raised in Hawkinsville, GA and worked after high school graduation on his grandfather’s farm for five years.  Mitchell’s grandfather intensively farmed four hundred acres of row crop peanuts, cotton, and corn plus tended a heard of fifty cows and one hundred and fifty hogs.  Mitchell’s grandfather named him his number “one hog man”.  Grandchildren Hayden and ScarlettMitchell alleges “hogs were sent to earth to teach patience” to their handlers.  Mitchell’s patience resulted in the hogs dining on mostly corn, soybeans, and supplements while not following his directions.    

 Mitchell spent the next six years porking out working on two different hog farms prior to accepting a position as a sheet metal specialist at nearby (thirty-one mile commute) Warner Robbins Air Force Base.  Mitchell toiled seventeen years as a government service sheet metal specialist prior to upgrading to a C-5 aircraft inspector for four years.  Mitchell’s running experience paid off as he has to climb every inch of the air frame during his inspection.  Mitchell now holds the position of an Industrial Planner at Warner Robbins Air Force Base.     

Mitchell and JessicaMitchell’s first race was the Macon Labor Day 5K in 1993 and he has never looked back.  His favorite is the old Tar Baby 10K (now The Torture Trail 10K) in Eatonton, GA.   Mitchell participated in forty-nine Run and See Georgia races in 2012 with a max of seventy-six a few years ago.  Mitchell also serves on weekends as back up song director for County Line Baptist.  Mitchell muses that if the Baptists need his services, he is severely limited in the number of hymns he can summon.  Mitchell acknowledges that his wife Lynn, used to be aggravated with the time he spent doing races.  Now she only inquires which direction he is going on a Saturday morning!  His hobbies include camping, with Dillard, GA being his favorite camp venue and his favorite area camping race being the one up the mountain at Sky Valley.  

Mitchell placed third in 2012 in the 50-54 men in the Black Bag Race series only due to the limited number of races he participated in, not for lack of speed or athletic ability. Mitchell didn’t even realize he had placed in the series until he ran a race at Middle Georgia Technical School where he received his Black Bag and Black Bag Series Shirt.   Mitchell would like to see more Black Bag scheduled in South Georgia in the future.   His best 5K time was 18:26 at a Plain’s Peanut Festival race, 38:52 for a 10K, one hour and 27 minutes in aMitchell with his Tar Baby Award half marathon, and three hours 17 minutes in a full marathon.  A tribute to Mitchell’s running prowess was that he qualified and participated in the 2005 Boston Marathon (Lead photo of the event with Josh Myers, Perry Slaughter, Mitchell, and Alan Black).

Bob checking out from the back of the pack.  Look for the profiles on Mary Hayes better half Larry Hayes, and on Cheryl Cook, and on Milledgeville’s Troy Garland.