Founders' Day to Feature Tribute to the Late Alf Mapp, Award Presentations

G. William Whitehurst, Kaufman Lecturer in Public Affairs, will give a tribute to the late Alf Mapp Jr., the professor emeritus of English, historian and author who died in January, at the annual Founders' Day luncheon on Friday, Oct. 14.

The program will include the following award presentations:

• Old Dominion University Community Service Award - Ellen Harvey, David O'Dell '82 and Dale Ryder '81

• Rita M. Costello Town-N-Gown Community Service Award - Julie Hill

• Albert B. "Buck" Gornto Jr. Regional Service Award - Gary McCollum

• Distinguished Entrepreneurial Award - Dwight Schaubach.

Information about the award recipients is included below:

Ellen Harvey

Lambert's Point Civic League President

Ellen Virginia Pryor Harvey was born in Norfolk and attended Virginia State College

for two years, majoring in home economics. Harvey started her first at-home day care center in 1962 under the Norfolk Social Services Department. She began working in recreation programs in the early 1970s, including the youth program sponsored by Old Dominion, which continues to serve the community today as the Lambert's Point Summer Program.

Harvey has served as president of the Lambert's Point Civic League since 1983, and

she was a "Keep America Beautiful" committee member and a city of Norfolk Youth board member. Her dedicated service to the community has been honored, among many accolades, through recognition as the "Mayor of Lambert's Point" by ODU in 1983, appointment to the first Advisory Board for the Park Place Center in 1989, receiving the Rita M. Costello Town-N-Gown Community Service Award in 1992 and being named "Donor of the Year" by Help Hospital Veterans in 2006.

David O'Dell '82

Larchmont/Edgewater Civic League President

David O'Dell has been a Norfolk resident for more than 30 years. O'Dell graduated from Old Dominion with a B.S. in business administration, cum laude, in 1982. In addition to being president of the Larchmont/Edgewater Civic League for more than 12 years, he has coached with Naval Base Little League for over nine years.

O'Dell also has been a volunteer national officer of Kappa Alpha Order for more than 19 years and was appointed by Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim to the Hampton Boulevard Congestion Relief Panel in 2009.

Dale Ryder '81

Highland Park Civic League President

Dale Ryder was born and raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Madison County, Va. He moved to the Highland Park neighborhood of Norfolk in 1977, while studying biology at Old Dominion. After graduating from ODU in 1981, he stayed in Highland Park, where he still lives today.

Despite owning and operating a busy landscaping and lawn service, Ryder is very active in the community and has served as president of the Highland Park Civic League since 1990. He has been a member of the ODU Safety Task Force since its inception in 2004 and currently serves as secretary of the board of directors of the ODU Community Development Corporation, which he joined in 2006.

Julie Hill

Julie Hill is the founder and executive director of Outreach Africa: Lost Boys Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Norfolk. A native of Hampton, she attended Virginia Commonwealth University (1973-75) and is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in ornamental horticulture.

Hill's chance meeting a few years ago with two refugees from Sudan sparked an interest that grew into Outreach Africa, which now provides a myriad of support to Sudanese refugees residing in the Hampton Roads area. The purpose of the organization is to bring aid to the Sudanese Lost Boys and Girls living in the United States and also to help their families left in Africa.

There are currently more than 40 Lost Boys and Lost Girls on the Southside and the Peninsula. There are also at least 10 large Sudanese families on the Peninsula with children of all ages.

The organization helps these children focus on their education and gain the skills necessary for a strong life foundation. It also works hand in hand with local professionals who generously donate their services to provide the children with educational, medical, dental and legal assistance, as well as with living and medical expenses when they are in crisis. Additionally, the organization provides funds to save the lives of their relatives in Africa in times of medical crisis.

Hill works with community volunteers and local professionals to coordinate donations of time and ­talent, securing medical, dental, financial and legal guidance for the refugees and their families. Through her efforts and the organization's support, several of the former Lost Boys and Lost Girls have completed studies and earned college degrees, fulfilled requirements for U.S. citizenship and become productive members in their adopted communities.

Gary McCollum

Gary McCollum, senior vice president and general manager for Cox Communications, was appointed to oversee all Cox operations in Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and Roanoke, Va., in February 2010. Cox Virginia's network reaches approximately 615,000 homes throughout the Commonwealth and has about 2,800 employees.

McCollum joined Cox Communications in 1989 as a manager trainee in Hartford, Conn., and was later promoted to a variety of management roles, including plant operations manager, director of network development and vice president of customer care. McCollum went on to serve as vice president and general manager for Cox's Roanoke cable system. In that role, he led an effort to bring the Information Superhighway to all segments of the community, to include low-income households. In 2000, he was promoted to vice president and general manager of Cox's newly acquired Northern Virginia system. In 2006, McCollum moved to Hampton Roads to become the regional manager; in May 2009, the Roanoke operations were added to his responsibilities.

McCollum has been named one of the "Most Influential Minorities in Cable" for the past four years, and he has been inducted into the Virginia Cable Hall of Fame and the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame.

McCollum is active in community and industry-related projects. He currently is a member of or serves on the board of the Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association; the Norfolk State University Board of Visitors (vice rector); Virginia Chamber of Commerce; Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce; Hampton Roads Partnership; and several other organizations.

Dwight Schaubach

The turning point of Dwight Schaubach's entire entrepreneurial career came in his mid-20s while working for Carmine Foods, a seafood processor in Richmond, Va. Wanting to be his own boss, he bid for a franchise in Carmine's Chic-A-Sea fast food ­restaurant chain. He was turned down, however, because Carmine Foods wanted him to ­continue managing its plant.

Undaunted, Schaubach moved to Norfolk in 1969 and started Feather-n-Fin, a chicken and seafood restaurant, with four tables and a lot of carryout. Within five years there were seven Feather-n-Fin restaurants in the Hampton Roads area.

Schaubach also launched Bay Disposal in 1975. Over the next 14 years, Bay Disposal expanded its ­service area to include Richmond and the Greenville/Washington area of North Carolina and all points in between. In late 1989, Bay Disposal was sold to a Pennsylvania company, and Schaubach directed his energies to Incendere, a medical waste treatment company he started in Norfolk in 1985.

Schaubach got back into the solid waste business twice more, buying and expanding Area Container (which he sold along with Incendere in 1996) and a new Bay Disposal, currently one of the largest independently owned waste companies in Virginia. Schaubach also owns Johns Brothers, a company that traces its roots in Norfolk back to 1892.

In 2009, Schaubach led a group of investors that purchased and totally renovated the Williamsburg Country Club, renaming it Williamsburg Club. Schaubach's entrepreneurial reach also currently includes an international truck dealership in Suffolk, a land development company in Suffolk, numerous commercial real estate rental properties and a construction and demolition debris landfill in Virginia Beach. Schaubach is an avid collector and restorer of a wide variety of antique automobiles and has generously supported, with both his time and resources, numerous civic and charitable organizations over the years.