When Gardiner Garrard, Jr. ’60 was a boy, his father, who graduated from Woodberry in 1932, told him, “If I had a choice between going to Woodberry and going to college, I would have gone to Woodberry because I learned so much there.”
Those words had a deep impact on Gardiner. “My dad grew up in a small town, and Woodberry was such an enlightening experience for him,” said Gardiner of his father, Gardiner Garrard, Sr. “He really valued his time there. And because he believed so passionately in the school, I never thought about going anywhere else.”
Gardiner entered Woodberry as a second former (eighth grade), but says that living away from home at such a young age wasn’t difficult. “I was at Woodberry for five years, and my parents didn’t come to see me one time until I graduated,” he said. “I guess you could say they were the opposite of helicopter parents. So for me, Woodberry became my home, and it really was a family-like thing being there.”
After he graduated, Gardiner went on to study English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then he earned a JD from the University of Georgia School of Law. He spent a year after law school clerking for the late federal Judge Griffin Bell in Atlanta. “It was a fabulous experience working on the circuit court,” he said. “I practiced law for about a year and a half after that and found it so boring after law school and clerking for a judge that I just knew I needed to do something different.”
A partnership with a college friend led Gardiner to a career shift developing apartments. After a few years, he joined his father-in-law’s business, The Jordan Company, in Columbus, Georgia. The company specialized in construction, building supplies, and insurance, but eventually began to focus on real estate development. That’s where Gardiner has spent the bulk of his career, serving as president from 1975 to 2009.
Despite the demands of leading a company, Gardiner has been a consistent volunteer for Woodberry. He served as a class volunteer for a decade, and he helped Woodberry’s admission office by joining Parents and Alumni Assisting Woodberry (PAAW) as the Columbus representative. Through the PAAW network, he visited prospective families to encourage them to choose Woodberry.
Whether he is supporting the school with his financial resources or with his time, Gardiner stays involved because he believes in the core values of Woodberry and wants future generations of boys to have the same transformational experience that he had — and that his father had before him.
“When I was learning as a young boy, I was learning from what my parents told me, and I was learning from what I saw them do,” said Gardiner. “When I got to Woodberry, there was kind of a codification of all those things. And I walked in and they’ve got an honor system. Then they introduce you to “A Boy’s Prayer.” On the front of the building, there is a plaque that says you need to dedicate yourself to intellectual thoroughness and moral integrity. They tell you it’s a school that was founded on Christian principles, and the community gathers for chapel services every week. I think the alumni and parents that contribute want to see that continue. They believe so strongly in the school, and those core values make Woodberry what it is. If you didn’t have those core values, Woodberry would be a bunch of really nice buildings with teachers. It wouldn’t be the same.”
Loyalty to Woodberry runs deep through his whole family. In addition to Gardiner and his father, Gardiner Sr. ’32, other Garrards who attended Woodberry include Gardiner’s brother, Spencer ’65; his sons, Gardiner III ’89, Gunby ’91, and Frank ’93; and his grandsons, Gunby, Jr. ’18, Brandt ’20, and Ford ’25. Gardiner and his wife, Nora, are members of the Walker Society and regular donors to the Amici Fund. Earlier this year, they established the Garrard Family Fund, which is designed to provide faculty support.
“I instinctively valued my experience there, and I know the rest of my family feels the same way,” said Gardiner. “I support the school every year because I think the values that Woodberry offers are worth protecting and saving. Giving to the school is a way for me to acknowledge that what I got out of my Woodberry experience far exceeded my expectations.”
