On a Sunday night in March 2019, Rebecca Burnett, the Director of the Writing and Communication Program (WCP) and the Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, received a very special gift from philanthropists Colonel Stephen C. Hall (Class of ’67) and Mrs. Pamela Hall.

Dr. Burnett was on her way to dinner with her partner, William Jeffries, and Colonel and Mrs. Hall when she was led back to the Stephen C. Hall Building. She found a new bench—festooned with gold and white balloons, perpendicular to the front door of the Hall Building—dedicated to her.

Dr. Burnett expressed delight in the bench. “The Friendship Bench was a complete and wonderful surprise,” she said. “I am honored and enormously moved by this bench, which symbolizes a wonderful friendship between Col. and Mrs. Hall and me. I also appreciate the long-term commitment of the Friendship Bench Endowment to extending campus green space and tree canopy.” Dr. Burnett also commented that Col. and Mrs. Hall's extraordinary involvement in the Writing and Communication Program benefits both students and faculty: “Their permanent legacy of the Stephen C. Hall Building provides a space for WCP classes, offices, meetings, academic and social events, film screenings, and public gatherings.”

“She’s an elegant woman,” said Colonel Hall when asked about Dr. Burnett, “and we share a love of the language.” Placing Dr. Burnett’s bench next to their building “intellectually ties them in perpetuity,” explains Col. Hall.

The bench has been installed as part of Georgia Tech’s Commemorative Bench and Tree Planting Program, which endows a commemorative bench and/or tree of the donor’s choice on campus to honor a person of the donor’s choosing. “The funds that are raised are directed to an endowment which is used to maintain and beautify the Georgia Tech green space in a variety of ways such as planting  trees and seasonal flowers, updating paths, and other landscape features across campus,” explains Trisha Sisk, Associate Director of Development Stewardship and leader of the program. “We are thankful for [Col. Hall’s] thoughtful gifts directed towards the beautification of our campus and know that it will serve generations to come!”

“It’s a hellaciously good program,” stated Col.Hall, as this is his fourth time dedicating a bench on campus. The first two are placed opposite each other on the crosswalk next to Tech Tower; one is dedicated to Christine and Dewey Hall, Colonel Hall’s parents; the other is dedicated to Pamela Hall and her parents, Lillian and Leslie Rigby. “If you ever get the chance, sit with Les and Lil for a minute,” encouraged Mrs. Hall.

Dr. Richard Utz, Chair of the LMC Department at Georgia Tech, had a lovely simile in store for the powerful intellectual bond between the two: “Like the building itself, the friendship bench is an eloquent sign of the fruitful partnership between philanthropy and the academy at our institution. In the case of Dr. Burnett and the Halls, it's even a perfect symbiosis.”

For more information about the Writing and Communication Program, visit https://wcprogram.lmc.gatech.edu/

For more information about the Brittain Fellowship Program, visit https://wcprogram.lmc.gatech.edu/brittain-fellowship

For more information about Col. and Mrs. Hall, visit https://www.iac.gatech.edu/community/distinguishedalumniawards/deansappreciation/SteveHall

For more information about the Commemorative Bench and Tree Planting Program, visit http://development.gatech.edu/why/honorary