After Saturday's baccalaureate ceremony in honor of Gainesville High School's Class of 2017, there are now 30 people with honorary GHS diplomas.
Heyward Gnann, David Shumake and Judge J.D. Smith were selected by the school’s Governance Council as 2017 honorary graduates earlier this year, and all three men received their diplomas on May 13 at First Baptist Church of Gainesville.
Gainesville High School for nine years now has conferred honorary diplomas to distinguished local citizens Recipients may not have graduated from a Gainesville City high school, must be living and must support the mission of the school.
*Heyward Gnann is a retired educator who taught at GHS and Gainesville College for thirty years then added twenty years’ teaching at the BULLI program of Brenau University.
*David Shumake was named principal of GHS in 1999 and later became Assistant Superintendent then Associate Superintendent of the city school system.
*Judge J.D. Smith earned his law degree from the University of Georgia then returned to his hometown for the private practice of law. Formerly the chief judge of the Superior Court of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit, he became the only Hall Countian named to the Georgia Court of Appeals in 1993 where he served until 2011.
