Col. George T. Hudgens, the first African-American graduate of Arkansas Tech University, will return to his alma mater to deliver the keynote address for the institution’s Black History Month celebration on Tuesday, Feb. 16.
Hudgens will speak at 7:30 p.m. in the Doc Bryan Student Services Center Lecture Hall. Admission will be free and open to the public.
A member of the Arkansas Tech Class of 1963, Hudgens was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army upon his graduation from college.
He served as a commander in Vietnam and led the mechanized infantry battalion at Fort Carson in Colorado. In 1983, be became a regimental commander for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There, he was responsible for the training, supervision, development and welfare of 2,400 prospective Army officers.
He went on to work at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., where he led efforts to counteract terrorism as inspections branch chief in the U.S. Army Office of the Inspector General. Hudgens was chief of staff for the U.S. Armed Forces inaugural committee for President George H.W. Bush in 1988 and was deputy director for that committee when his fellow Arkansan, Bill Clinton, was inaugurated as president in 1992.
After 29 years of active duty, Hudgens retired from the U.S. Army at the rank of Colonel. His second career as a civilian included time as chief executive officer and national director for organizations that provide juvenile justice services.
Hudgens and his wife, Rosanna, reside in Silver Spring, Md. He was honored by the African-American Chapter of the Arkansas Tech Alumni Association with its outstanding alumni award in fall 2015.