Bill & Marie Bush Friend of Preservation Award
This award, named in honor of Historic Augusta’s founders Bill & Marie Bush, is awarded to an individual or individuals who demonstrate a lifelong dedication to historic preservation and unyielding support of Historic Augusta, Inc.
Congratulations to Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell for being recognized as the 2023 Bill & Marie Bush Friend of Preservation Award winner! Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell is a native of Augusta who received her PhD from the University of Georgia. She continues to be an avid supporter of history and historic preservation, having served in the following capacities at Historic Augusta, Inc.:
- Board of Trustees since the 1980s
- Executive Committee, currently and for many years
- Named an Honorary Trustee, 2018
- Chair, Boyhood Home of President Woodrow Wilson
- Authored the interpretation of the house museum used by museum docents for tours
Additionally, Dr. Caldwell has been involved in many community initiatives, including:
- Augusta Heritage Trust (Director, 1978-1981), a heritage tourism arm of Historic Augusta
- Paine College (Associate Professor of history, 1980-1991)
- Augusta State University (Associate Professor of History, 1991- present)
- Georgia College and State University (Professor of History, chair of the Department of History)
- Augusta State University/Georgia Regents University/Augusta University (Professor of History)
- Augusta University (Professor Emerita of History)
- Center for the Study of Georgia History (volunteer director)
- Augusta University Historian-in-Residence
- Leadership Augusta (board member since 1980, first year of program)
- Leads or assists with History Day every year since inception of the program
- Augusta Historical Society (formerly Richmond County Historical Society and Augusta-Richmond County Historical Society, past president, board member, and historian)
- Greater Augusta Arts Council (past board member)
- Southern Association of Women Historians
- Southern History Association
- Georgia Historical Society
- Georgia Association of Historians (Warren Spencer Award, 1998)
- Georgia Women of Achievement (Board of Directors)
Dr. Caldwell has also contributed to scholarship through many works, including:
- Paternalism in the Old South (co-authored with several others)
- Georgia: It’s Heritage and Promise
- Augusta: Then and Now (co-author with Nancy Glaser)
- Augusta (Historic Augusta’s 50th Anniversary publication, co-authored with Jim Garvey)
Past Bill & Marie Bush Friend of Preservation Award Recipients
- 2012: Bill & Marie Bush (posthumously)
- 2013: Clay Boardman
- 2014: Julian Osbon (posthumously)
- 2015: Tennent Houston, Sr.
- 2017: Creel-Harrison Foundation
- 2018: Jacquelyn Murray Blanchard
- 2018: Albert F. Cheatham
- 2019: Erick D. Montgomery
- 2020: Bryan Halterman
- 2022: Ann Boardman