Electric Co-op Today

You know how it goes when you clean out the attic—stuff turns up that you haven’t seen since who-knows-when. Something like that recently happened at a South Florida church, which led to a Georgia co-op official presenting state Senate officials with a very special gift.

Greg Ford (left) presents the official “class” portrait of the 1941 Georgia Senate to Secretary of the Senate Robert Ewing. (Photo By: Georgia EMC)

The story began when parishioners at the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach cleaned out a storage area. Among the volunteers was Char Anderson, sister-in-law of Greg Ford, president/CEO of Georgia System Operations Corp.

“They knew they had some stuff down there that nobody had ever seen before, at least with the current staff,” Ford recalled. “In a corner was a box that simply said, ‘Foster Estate,’ and as they went through the box they found two pictures. One was the 1941 Georgia State Senate ‘class.’”

The photo is a framed piece of art incorporating photos of all of the 1941 senators, including a Sen. Foster. But no one at the church knows the Foster family. Ford believes the lawmaker might have retired to Florida and made the decision to donate items which included the photo, but it’s really a mystery. “There’s no telling how long that picture was there,” Ford said.

Anderson called up to Atlanta and asked the Secretary of the Senate if they would like the photo, which was in fine condition. “They, of course, said they would love to have it,” Ford told ECT.coop.

So Anderson gave the photo to Ford, who recently presented it to Georgia Secretary of the Senate Robert Ewing.

“When he saw the picture and the condition it was in he was very excited and immediately took me into the room where they have pictures of past ‘classes,’” Ford said. Until then, the oldest photo had been from 1953. “He started looking through it and picking out names—‘This person’s grandson is in the Senate. This person’s grandson is in the House.’ So he was already connecting some dots.”

The other photo Anderson found is of the 1909 graduating class from the Mercer University School of Law in Macon, Ga. Ford expects that in June, the managers of the EMCs serving the Macon area will present that photo to the school.

Could there be other treasures yet to be uncovered in the church? “It’s an old church in a very well-known part of West Palm Beach,” Ford said. “There’s no telling what they could find.”

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