The Founding of the Piedmont Chapter

Ed Sterrett on the left, photo taken in 2002 while Ed was attending a family reunion in Ohio.
Frank Darwin on the right photo taken after his presidency of the Piedmont Chapter

Frank Darwin and I, both members of the Atlanta Chapter and both living in North Fulton County, were the originators of the idea for a new SAR chapter in the Roswell/Alpharetta area. The first discussion about a new chapter , and our first planning meeting, was at the Senior Enriched Living Center in Alpharetta. Both Frank and I were attending a class on genealogy at the center that Frank’s wife, Anne, was teaching. Over lunch, our thoughts turned to the SAR and the possible need for a new chapter in the northern Metro area. We decided that a new chapter should be started in North Fulton, so efforts were begun. We both came up with some names of prospects and we both started doing some phoning to invite those on our lists to a meeting to discuss the prospective chapter.The first meeting was held at the Roswell Methodist Church on February 12, 1994. If my memory serves correctly, there were about 10 people in attendance at that first meeting, including the then GASSAR state president Colonel Robert Galer. Everybody at the meeting was in favor of starting a new chapter, and Aubrey Morris suggested we name the new chapter the Piedmont Chapter. Aubrey’s suggestion was accepted and so the chapter was named. We also had a discussion on when the chapter meetings should be held and it was decided that we should meet early on a Saturday morning in order to accommodate the greatest number of people, especially those who worked during the week. At that time the Atlanta Chapter was meeting at noon on Tuesday at a restaurant at the Peachtree DeKalb Airport which meant few members, who were working, could attend the meetings and we wanted very much to avoid that problem and thus out meeting time was established for Saturday mornings. Everybody in attendance that day was assigned the responsibility to talk to the prospective members on our list.Frank and I put mailings together to spread the word, and Anne acted as genealogist/registrar to help prospective members who needed assistance with their applications.An organizational meeting was scheduled for March 7, 1994 and GASSAR President Bob Galer presented the charter. Eighteen charter members were in attendance. The officers elected for the first year were:

• Frank H. Darwin Jr., PresidentMerril Law, Vice PresidentClaude H. Snow Jr., SecretaryEdgar B. Sterrett Jr , TreasurerDouglas Stansberry, ChaplainC. Kenneth Meeker, RegistrarEric A. Szweda, Chancellor
• Kenneth L. Howell, Sergeant-at-Arms
• The first chapter anniversary meeting was celebrated on February 20, 1995, at which time new officers were installed, and Frank and I were awarded the Silver Good Citizenship Medal.