Albany Technical College will hold their annual Veteran’s Day Program on Thursday, November 9, 2017, beginning at 10 a.m., in the Kirkland Conference Center. Keynote speaker for this year’s ceremony will be Representative Darrel Bush Ealum.

Elected to represent Georgia House District 153 in 2014, Representative Darrel Bush Ealum is from Albany, Dougherty County, Ga. He is a retired Marine Officer; holds a master's degree from Pepperdine University; and is Chief Executive Officer of Ealum Estates, Inc. He also taught as an Associate Professor at Miami University and served on the Dougherty County School Board for four years.

Born 1948 in the family farmhouse in south Alabama, Ealum is one of six siblings who worked on the farm picking cotton, cropping tobacco, and hoeing peanuts. At age 43, their mother earned her teaching degree from Troy State Teacher's College, and they moved from their farm, which had no indoor plumbing, to a small brick house with two indoor baths in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Influenced by his mother's determined quest for an education, Ealum soon enrolled at Troy University, graduated in three years, and later earned his master’s degree from Pepperdine University, Malibu, California.

Ealum served 20 years as a Marine Infantry Office, Reconnaissance Officer, Logistics Officer, Aviation Observation Officer, and Program Manager, Norway Air-Landed Marine Expeditionary Brigade. His twin brother Carrel was killed in Vietnam.

As a young Marine Captain in 1980, Ealum was assigned to the Marine Corps Logistics Base, Albany, where he and his wife Linda settled. Married 35 years, the couple have four children (Lydia, Jo, Susie, and James) and eight grandchildren. Jo and Susie served four years as active duty Marine Officers and are presently Marine Captains in the inactive and active reserves, respectively.

In the early 1980s, the Ealums began buying, managing, and selling personally owned real estate. Today, Darrel and Linda are Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officers, Ealum Properties and Ealum Estates. Inc. They personally own and manage their houses, apartments, and mobile home estates in four surrounding counties.

Active in the community, Ealum is a member or the Albany Rotary Club, Past President of two Kiwanis Clubs, Past Lt. Governor of Kiwanis, Division 3, and Past Vice-President of the Albany Symphony Board. While on active duty, the Ealums served as Base Chapel Youth Directors and are currently members of Porterfield United Methodist Church.

After a welcome from ATC President, Dr. Anthony Parker, and an invocation, Monroe Comprehensive High School ROTC will conduct the Presentation of Colors, followed by the National Anthem, performed by WALB-News 10 Anchor, Karla Heath-Sands, and special patriotic songs performed by the Albany Technical College Pre-K Class.

This year marks Albany Tech’s fifth year holding an annual Veteran’s Day for faculty, staff, students, and the Albany community. The college also holds an annual Memorial Day Ceremony each May. The purpose of the programs is to educate ATC students on what the day commemorates.