Join us at GermannaFest, a 40th anniversary celebration at the Locust Grove Campus honoring the 14,000 students who have attended Germanna Community College since its founding was made possible by a donation of 100 acres of land by the Germanna Foundation. 

The event, which features music, German beverages, and food, will last from Noon until 7:00 p.m. Germanna Community College President David Sam and Germanna Foundation President Marc Wheat will speak briefly at 4:30 p.m.

It will also be the launch of an important speaker series you won't want to miss.

Germanna Community College, in cooperation with The Orange County Historical Society, The Museum of Culpeper History, and The Germanna Foundation, present a series of “18th & 19th Century Stories of the North-Central Piedmont of Virginia Illustrated History Lectures by Frank S. Walker, Jr.”

The inaugural lecture will take place during GermannaFest (celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first classes of Germanna Community College) at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 9, 2010, and is entitled "Germanna, Orange County & Westward Expansion."   

The lecture will be held in Room 114 Germanna Community College, Locust Grove Campus (the campus adjoining the Brawdus Martin Germanna Visitor Center). 2130 Germanna Hwy, Locust Grove, VA 22508 540-423-9030 Located on Rt. 3. Approximately 5 miles west of Rt. 20. The campus will be on the left.

Frank Stringfellow Walker, Jr. was born and raised in Madison County, Virginia, just across the Rapidan River that divides Madison and Orange counties. He was the fourth generation of Walkers to live at Rosni, the dairy farm that had been in the family since it was purchased in 1805 from the heirs of Francis Madison, brother of the President. Although history was not an everyday topic of conversation in his childhood home, the family was steeped in history. On his mother’s side Mr. Walker can trace his lineage to Thomas Jefferson; and on his father’s side to Robert Stringfellow Walker, a Confederate cavalry captain with Mosby’s Rangers. When the Civil War was over, Captain Walker married and had six sons, and together with his wife and sister established Woodberry Forest School, a nationally renowned college preparatory school for boys in Madison County.

Mr. Walker was educated at Woodberry Forest, Virginia Tech (BS in agronomy) and the University of Virginia (MBA & JD). After a couple of decades as a farmer, followed by over a decade practicing law, Mr. Walker decided in 1994 to pursue yet another profession. His growing knowledge of local history became a calling. Looking around where he had lived all his life, he saw significant heritage at every turn, but many people knew little of that rich heritage, while growth and development threatened to overshadow, if not erase, the evidences of it. Mr. Walker established Tourguide, Ltd., and as a freelance tour guide, speaker and writer, began sharing his accumulated knowledge of the region with both locals and visitors.

He is motivated by the belief that as more people become aware of Orange’s heritage, they will join in the effort to promote and protect it for the next generation, even in the face of inevitable growth and development.