Submitted by Jim Cottingham
Dr. G. Wayne Clough, President Emeritus of Georgia Tech and Secretary Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, is returning to his hometown of Douglas for an event celebrating the October 2026 release of his latest book The Ever-Changing Georgia Coast: A Natural History of Its Creation, Transformation, and Future. The book was published by the Smithsonian Press and is distributed by Penguin Books.
The presentation begins at 6:30 pm on Thursday, November 12, at the South Georgia State College Library in Douglas on West College Park Drive. Copies of Dr. Clough’s book are available through your chosen book vendor, and copies will also be offered for purchase at the event. Time for audience Questions and Answers and a book-signing will be featured. This event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Clough trained as a civil engineer specializing in geotechnical engineering. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Georgia Tech and a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. His distinguished academic career included teaching and leadership posts at Duke, Stanford, Virginia Tech, and the University of Washington before he served as president of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1994 to 2008. In 2008, he became the 12th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest consortium of museums, educational, and research facilities.
His scholarly contributions to his discipline and society were widely recognized with honors that included being twice awarded the Normal Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers, membership in the America Academy of Arts and Sciences, and membership in the National Board of Science.
Dr. Clough relates intriguing details about the extraordinary expansion and elevation of Georgia Tech’s scope and campus during his presidency in his book The Technological University Reimagined, published by Mercer University Press in 2021. Tech capitalized on the extraordinary convergence of opportunities that emerged as Atlanta prepared to host the Centennial Olympic Games while concurrently dealing with significant urban challenges. Strengthening academic programs, student success, and outreach were joined by successful effort to expand the campus to the east across Interstate 75 with the creation of Tech Square and other successful revitalization efforts. The story about building a pedestrian corridor across the Interstate is worth more than the purchase price of the book.
Clough championed the Tech Promise Scholarship program, which was boosted locally by an endowment by Francis and Diane Lott. These efforts helped to significantly increase the number of Coffee Countians able to enroll in Georgia Tech. Keeping it current, Dr. Clough has been invited to visit with students at Coffee High School Media Center on Thursday afternoon, November 12.
Throughout his service as Secretary of the Smithsonian from 2008-2014, Dr. Clough offered a “From the Castle” feature in the Smithsonian Magazine spotlighted leading initiatives each month. An April 2014 entry is my favorite. Secretary Clough shared a classic postcard from his hometown and shared his plans for retirement.
“After I step down as Secretary in the fall, I’ll be moving to Atlanta, where my children live, but I’ll still be visiting Douglas, about 200 miles to the southeast, where I have relatives and friends. In anticipation, I’ve been learning as much as I can about the natural history of Georgia from the Smithsonian collections. Shortly I’ll take up the invitation of a childhood friend, Frankie Snow, a naturalist and archaeologist who still lives in Douglas, to tour several of the places where Smithsonian artifacts were found. We’ll also visit the church where my mother was baptized (in a creek) and family graves.”
And tour places he did. Just visiting family graves becomes a series of excursions. Generations of Dr. Clough’s family rest in cemeteries in Coffee, Ware, and surrounding counties. His father D. G. Clough and his great-grandfather Daniel Gaskin both served as mayor of the City of Douglas and are buried in the Douglas Cemetery and the Sand Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, respectively. His great, great grandmother Fannie Lott Gaskin rests at Lone Hill Church Cemetery, while earlier ancestors are buried at Kettle Creek Church Cemetery just west of Waycross.
As youngsters Wayne Clough and Frankie Snow were across the street neighbors on North Grady Avenue in Douglas. Frankie accompanied his lifelong friend on some of the field excursions that were featured in Clough’s book Things New and Strange: A Southerner’s Journey Through the Smithsonian Collections. That impressive work resulted in Clough being named Author of the Year in History by the Georgia Writers Association. Later in 2020, because of his lifetime of contributions, he joined Don Berryhill, Derby Waters, Dr. Clay Montague, and others named Conservationist of the Year by the Satilla Riverkeeper.
In this latest book Clough explores the rich geological history and fascinating ecological treasures that define the Georgia coast and coastal plane. Readers will find much to revel in through the scope of this volume – whales, sea turtles, birds, unique plants, fossils, geological formations, rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, barrier islands, and one hundred miles of coastline, all illuminated by Clough’s personal encounters with extraordinary people who have spent their lives studying, celebrating, and preserving these marvels.
Georgia nature writer extraordinaire Charles Seabrook offers this praise for the work that clearly reflects Clough’s quest for knowledge and his extraordinary commitment to environmental sustainability: “In my opinion, such an intense, healthy curiosity is a God-given gift that propels writers, artists, scientists, explorers, journalists, and others to learn about, understand, and marvel over the world around them. Sam Perlmutter, who won the Nobel Prize in physics, said, ‘I just wanted to know how the world worked.’ Wayne Clough just wanted to know how the Georgia coast works. I say mission accomplished.”
Yes, mission accomplished. We hope you can join us for the book launch on November 12.
Submitted photo