DATE: Friday, June 20, 1997                 TAG: 9706200713

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

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MILESTONES

PORTSMOUTH

Elois F. Butler, a Woodrow Wilson High School guidance counselor, has been named the Hampton Roads Guidance Counselor of the Year by the Hampton Roads Counselors Association.

Since coming to Wilson in January, Butler has served as a teacher, mentor and a cooperating teacher for student teachers, organized a career day function and an adopt-a-student recognition program, and helped in the preparation of a Wellness Day event. She also chaired a student-of-the-month program and a standardized testing program.

Butler has bachelor's and master's degrees from Norfolk State University. She is state certified in elementary, middle and secondary guidance and counseling.

After serving as a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher for 20 years in the Portsmouth Public Schools, including at Churchland Academy and Hodges Manor and Olive Branch elementary schools, Butler worked as an elementary counselor for five years at the Olive Branch and James Hurst schools before going to work at Woodrow Wilson High School. In 1989, she was named teacher of the year at Hodges Manor Elementary.

Butler is a member of the Virginia Counselors Association, Hampton Roads Counselors Association, National Educational Association, Virginia Education Association, Portsmouth Education Association, Chesapeake Prison Ministry and Detention Home Team, PTSA at Deep Creek High School, National Council of Negro Women and Delta Sigma Theta Inc.

NORFOLK

Larry Whitworth, president of Tidewater Community College, will be honored as Downtowner of the Year by the Downtown Norfolk Council at its annual meeting Wednesday.

The award recognizes Whitworth's dedication and commitment to developing a campus of Tidewater Community College in Norfolk.

Cathy Coleman, executive director of the Downtown Norfolk Council, said the idea of a Norfolk campus has been around for years. Whitworth took it one step further and made it happen, she said.

``He was just absolutely tenacious.''

He developed consensus among the college's administration, the city, the state, Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and private donors, she said.

Whitworth also had the administrative offices moved from Portsmouth to the more central location of downtown Norfolk. The college also has campuses in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth, near the Suffolk border.

Two winners have come out of his efforts, Coleman said. TCC now has a Norfolk campus, and Granby Street's long-vacant department stores have been and put into use.

``He has breathed life into downtown and into the buildings,'' Coleman said.

At its Wednesday meeting, the Downtown Norfolk Council also will present James E. Gehman with the Roy Badgley Distinguished Service Award.

A resident of Ghent and an architect with Glenn and Sadler, Gehman has served on the Norfolk Design Review Committee, an all-volunteer subcommittee of the City Planning Commission. He also has served as co-chairman of the Physical Environment Committee.

The award is named for Roy Badgley, who before his death in 1992 was partner and manager of Freemason Abbey Restaurant.

SUFFOLK

Allen Bryant of Suffolk, an employee with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic Division, 1510 Gilbert St. in Norfolk, was honored as the Navy Value Engineering Professional by the Department of Defense.

The presentation was made recently at the Pentagon by Patricia A. Sanders, the director of Test, Systems Engineering and Evaluation for the Department of Defense.

This is the third consecutive year that the Atlantic Division has received a Value Engineering Award, which is a systematic functional analysis leading to actions or recommendations to improve systems, equipment, facilities, services and supplies. The objectives are to improve quality and to reduce cost.

VIRGINIA BEACH

George W. Ganter of Virginia Beach was elected and installed worthy grand patron at the 93rd session of the Grand Chapter of Virginia, Order of the Eastern Star in Williamsburg.

Ganter, a retired civil service worker from Oceana Naval Air Station, is a member of Bayside Presbyterian Church.

He is a master Mason, served as worshipful master of Lynnhaven Lodge 220 in 1983 and has held active roles in various Masonic bodies. Ganter joined Eastern Star in 1973.

Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf was among eight mayors selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Arts Mayors' Institute on City Design at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Mass.

Virginia Beach's case study was based on the city's need to determine the future for the Rudee Loop property, coupled with a report that identified Rudee Loop as a prime site for a convention center. ILLUSTRATION: Photos

Larry Whitworth

George W. Ganter

Meyera Oberndorf

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