Columbia College honored for military friendliness

President Gerald Brouder named Salute to Veterans Corporation corporate volunteer of the year

The Salute to Veterans Corporation, which runs the annual Columbia, Mo., Memorial Day airshow, honored Gerald Brouder, Columbia College president, as corporate volunteer of the year for his initiative and leadership in educating military learners:

"This award goes to an individual, who as president of his corporation which just happens to be in the business of educating, has taken his academic institution into the forefront of supporting our armed forces across the United States and beyond. As a result of his leadership his school was recently recognized as in the top 20 of military-friendly educational institutions.

We are proud of its role in serving all of the military services and their family members worldwide and equally pleased and grateful for his support of the Salute to Veterans celebration. So our corporate volunteer of the year award goes to Dr. Jerry Brouder, president of Columbia College."

Brouder was awarded a mahogany, hand-carved scale model of a Navy F/A-18c Hornet from VFA-125, Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., at which Columbia College has a campus.

Columbia College sponsored a demonstration team of Hornets from Naval Air Station Lemoore at the show. One of the Hornet pilots was Lt. Jason Dalby, whose grandmother Dorothy Jacobs Hatfield '41 is one of the college's most stalwart supporters; Samantha Elyse Rubiaco, a current Columbia College-Lemoore student and Cabool, Mo., native, is a Hornet ejection systems mechanic and traveled with the team.

More than half of the college's 35 campuses are on military installations and a third of its approximately 25,000 students are military.