TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY, AL − (November 4, 2003) − U.S. Army Col. Sandra V. Richardson is coming home.

The 1978 accounting graduate’s return to her alma mater won't just be for Tuskegee University’s homecoming. The senior military assistant to the director of Defense Finance and Accounting Service is the 2003 Charter Day/Homecoming Convocation speaker on Sunday, Nov. 9. She'll give her 9:30 a.m. address in the Tuskegee University Chapel.

"I'm one of four Tuskegee graduates in my family, so it's great to return as the Homecoming speaker. I've made all of the reunions. Tuskegee is like home for me," said the Beatrice native. Richardson is also a Tuskegee Army ROTC alumna who believes that "with a lot of faith and hard work you can get through anything."

Her motivational speech, Richardson said, "is going to be, 'Grateful to Dance Another Day.'" Those who want to know what that's all about will just have to wait, she said. "I'll explain what that means when I get there."

Also coming back to Mother Tuskegee are more than 25,000 alumni, including 2003 Alumni Merit Award winners Julia P. Cummings Lewis, ’59, and Joe Carl Thomas, ’58, the 2003 Homecoming Parade marshal Solomon L. Banks, ’64, and the reunion classes of 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998.

"We're very pleased and excited to have one of our own, Col. Sandra Richardson, address us here at Tuskegee University," said Dr. Benjamin F. Payton, President of Tuskegee University.

Payton said he is also awaiting the "opportunity to recognize the Alumni Merit Award winners, graduates who personify the highest ideals of their alma mater."

Willie M. Burnett, ’66 and ’68, director of the Annual Fund/Planned Giving, said Lewis and Thomas are being honored for "exemplifying the finest traditions of Tuskegee University."

Lewis is president of the Atlanta-Tuskegee Alumni Club. Under her leadership, an Endowed Scholarship Fund was established at Tuskegee University to support Atlanta area students. Since 1994, fellow alumni elected Lewis as alumni representative on the Tuskegee University Board of Trustees. She is a Distinguished Life Eminent Presidential/1000 Plus Associate member and worked for more than two decades as a dietician, including a stint in the New York City School System.

Thomas earned his master of arts degree from New Jersey’s Rider University and served in the U.S. Army for more than 20 years, receiving the Legion of Merit Award. The retired executive director of the Economic Opportunity Council of San Francisco and retired vice president for administration and treasurer for Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley is an English instructor at Richmond High School in California.

As western regional director and president of the Tuskegee National Alumni Association, Thomas served Tuskegee well, Burnett said. Though busy with civic and work duties, he also finds time to serve on the Continentals of Omega Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors and as elected secretary on the Solano County Democratic Central Committee, 8th Democratic Assembly District.

An Eminent Presidential/1000 Plus Associate and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Thomas is active in the Bay Area Tuskegee Alumni Club.

If Lewis and Thomas are greatly honored to be recognized by Tuskegee, the 2003 Homecoming Parade marshal is equally as proud. On Saturday, Nov. 8, Banks will start the 9 a.m. procession from the National Park Service Headquarters, leading floats carrying the likes of Mr. and Miss Tuskegee University, Kenneth DeShields II of Moss Point, Miss., and DiAnne Davis of Oklahoma City, Okla.

Banks is president of the Tuskegee National Alumni Association.

Other homecoming highlights on Saturday are the 11 a.m. Legacy Walkway (Phase I) Unveiling of Engraved Bricks on the yard, the 1 p.m. 79th Annual Homecoming Football Game against Clark Atlanta University and the 6 p.m. Homecoming Step Show.

In addition to NASA, BET and Jet magazine’s visits to Tuskegee University during homecoming, Dr. William H. Waddell - the last living member of the first faculty of Tuskegee’s School of Veterinary Medicine and of the Buffalo Soldiers - will visit with the Army ROTC at 8 a.m. on Nov. 6 and the Vet School on Nov. 7 at 11:30 a.m.

For more homecoming information, visit www.tuskegee.edu/homecoming or call Denise L. Berkhalter, director of public and media affairs, Tuskegee University Office of Marketing and Communications, at (334) 724-4553 or 552-1292 (cell) or send e-mail to dlberkhalter@tuskegee.edu.