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Contact: Marilynn Fryer
(517) 796-8466
e-mail: FryerMarilynT@jccmi.edu
08/17/04
For immediate release

JCC Honoree, Missionary Receives State Alumni Award

Dr. G. Richard Watterson, a 1965 graduate of Jackson Junior College and recipient of JCC's 2003 Dr. Ethelene Jones Crockett Distinguished Alumni Award, has gained statewide recognition with the 2004 Michigan Community College Association Outstanding Alumnus Award. The award was presented at the MCCA annual meeting in July in Traverse City.

Dr. Watterson has dedicated his life to serving others. After attending JJC, Watterson went on to Michigan State University and then the University of Michigan Dental School before opening a dental practice in Jackson. While in practice in Jackson, he and his wife, Leota, a graduate of the Mercy School of Nursing, made several trips to remote villages in Africa, Central and South America, where they operated dental clinics. The Wattersons are now missionaries for Central American Missions (CAM), thus providing religious as well as medical services to the natives. Since 1994, they have concentrated their services in Honduras, where Dr. Watterson was appointed president of CAM missions, a non-denominational evangelical group. They have built a dental clinic in Siguatepeque and made this place their home.

"While attending Jackson Junior College I encountered faculty, particularly in the biology department, who were more than educators, they were encouragers and mentors," Watterson said in accepting his award in Traverse City. "When I graduated from JCC I left with the fundamentals for living that I continue to use to this day." These principles include living for a purpose, living with a passion for whatever you do, and living to serve others before yourself.

In addition to providing medical and missionary services, Dr. Watterson also helped direct mission relief work necessitated by the disastrous Hurricane Mitch for the entire country of Honduras.  This included providing sanctuaries, building homes, repairing churches and distributing vital provisions for the people.  Financial support for their work is provided by the Wattersons and the Ganson Street Baptist Church, where Dr. Watterson served as deacon for 18 years.