Romeo Hudgins

ROMEO HUDGINS VO-TECH ENDOWMENT

The scholarship submission window for the 2023-2024 school year will open January 3rd and close March 1st. 

2024 Scholarship Application - Applications due March 1, 2024

(ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN A PDF FILE FORMAT)

 

G.W. (Romeo) Hudgins, born near Gainesville GA on August 27, 1920, the second of 6 children. Living through the disastrous tornadoes in Gainesville in 1936 gave him a strong sense of service to his community.

When WWII broke out Romeo enrolled at Habersham Trade School in Clarksville GA to learn the welding trade in order to serve in the defense effort. He worked at the shipyards of Wilmington NC where he met and married Nellie Baker in 1943.

Romeo came to Marietta to take a temporary job with the Bell Aircraft Corp, which had opened a giant aircraft plant for the manufacture of the B-29 Superfortress in WWII. He worked for Bell until the war ended and then opened his own welding shop on Gross Street in Marietta.

Romeo felt great loyalty to the city and the people of Marietta.  He was involved in the development of Little League baseball in the city as well as other sports programs.  He either played or coached in the various programs and took great pleasure in carrying the yardage chain at all Marietta High School home football games.

Romeo was a member of the Cobb Parks and Recreation Commission for years and instrumental in development of Larry Bell and the Cobb Civic Center.  He served as the Civil Defense director for Marietta for seven years, a member of the Lions Club and a charter member of the Kennesaw Mountain Jaycees.  Two of his primary interests later in life was to serve as head of the North Georgia Fair and his involvement in the work of the Cobb County Unit of the American Cancer Society.  In 1972, the Marietta Daily Journal presented him with the Cobb County Citizen of the Year award.

In 1995 Romeo established the “Romeo Hudgins Vo-Tech Endowment” at The Marietta Schools Foundation to provide scholarships to MHS graduates who seek to attend a technical vocational school.