Dr. Franklin Goldwire was honored Thursday night with the Treutlen Award at the Effingham County Chamber of Commerce 2017 Membership Recognition Banquet, which took place at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Rincon.

Dr. Goldwire, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam and long-time educator in Effingham County, was named the recipient of the Treutlen Award by Dr. Randy Shearouse, Superintendent of the Effingham County School System.

Shearouse explained that he did not want to identify the winner of the award outright and opted to recite 10 facts about the winner. It did not take long before the attendees became aware who Dr. Shearouse was talking about.

According to the guidelines set by the Chamber, the following criteria must be met by the Treutlen Award winner: “Each year, the Chamber presents its John Adam Treutlen Award to an outstanding citizen for exemplary service to the Effingham County community. The award is named in honor of Georgia’s first governor, John Adam Treutlen. Treutlen started out as an indentured servant and later grew up among Salzburgers, was educated at Ebenezer and helped draft Georgia’s first constitution. In 1777, he was immensely popular and was elected by a wide margin as Georgia’s first governor under this new constitution. With the selection of Treutlen, Georgia chose a man who ‘possesses native intelligence’ and could, under pressure, reply ‘coolly and laconically’ to his political opponents and was thus well-suited for the difficult task of leading the new state. Recipients of the Annual John Adam Treutlen Award also possess leadership and intelligence, unique to those distinctive Salzburgers who established Effingham.”

Along with receiving the award, Dr. Goldwire was also given a personalized letter from Gov. Nathan Deal thanking him for his work in the community.

More information to come in next week’s edition of the Effingham Herald.