2008 Distinguished Alumni Award

John R. Milleson, Class of 1978, has spent 30 years in the financial and banking industries, rising through the ranks to become only the eighth president in the 122-year history of the Bank of Clarke County in Berryville, Va.

Mr. Milleson is a native of Berryville who grew up in Clarke County and graduated from Clarke County High School in 1974. He majored in economics at Bridgewater College and remembers with fondness physical education professor and coach Carlyle Whitelow and business professor Robert L. Hueston.

“I never had a class from Coach Whitelow, but I learned a lot about life and competition from him as I played on the tennis team for him all four years,” Mr. Milleson said. “Professor Hueston was the best teacher I’ve ever had, period. He was fantastic.”

After graduation, Mr. Milleson became a staff accountant with the firm of Barbour, Drunagel & Renner, a position he held until 1980 when he joined Shenandoah Valley National Bank as an auditor. He stayed in that position until 1984 when he moved to the Bank of Clarke County as a loan officer. In 1985, Mr. Milleson earned his master’s degree in business administration from Shenandoah University.

Mr. Milleson’s rise in the Bank of Clarke County took him to positions as operations officer, chief financial officer, chief administrative officer and, in 1999, president and chief executive officer. Today, the bank Mr. Milleson oversees boasts total assets, as of Dec. 31, 2007, of $507.5 million.

Mr. Milleson is active in both professional and private community organizations. He is a board member of the Virginia Bankers Association and is member and chairman of the board of Bankers Insurance LLC. Civic groups in which he is active include the Clarke County Education Foundation, as treasurer; Clarke County Lions Club, as member and past president; Evans Home for Children, as endowment committee member; Boy Scouts of America, as board member and volunteer; and board member of Top of Virginia (TOPVA) Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of the Shenandoah Valley.

Mr. Milleson and his wife, Bette Beveridge Milleson, have two children – Josh, 15, and Alex, 14. They are members of Grace Episcopal Church in Berryville, where Mr. Milleson serves as trustee and senior warden. His sister, Susan Milleson Catlett, ’87, is principal of Boyce Elementary School in Clarke County.

The Bridgewater College Alumni Association presented its 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award to John R. Milleson, in recognition of his professionalism in the banking industry and deep involvement in civic affairs.