Dr. Phil "Garv" Garver
Dr. Phil Garver is the Dean of Southern Adventist University's School of Physical Education, but he doesn't ask his students to call him Dr. Garver. He prefers that they call him Garv.
Garv will admit that the idea for the Collegedale Veteran's Memorial Park
was originally his, but he is quick to give credit to the committee of 12
men who have been meeting weekly since to make his idea a reality. Garv also likes to say that the park is located right behind the Gentle Dental on Apison Pike in Collegedale. Garv takes the time to advertise the park's proximity to Gentle Dental because "the owner's a really great guy."
Perhaps Garv possesses these because he comes from simpler times. Garv was
born in September of 1945 on "the tail end of the baby boomers." These
values became especially critical when Garv was drafted into the Vietnam War.
"I was drafted in '66. I got out early for school in August '68, so I was in the Army 22 months," Garv said. Garv was involved in the Tet offensive of 1968, while serving in the 4th Infantry Division. Garv's values dictated that he serve, but they dictated without a weapon.
"I was a conscientious objector. I was willing to serve, but I chose to be unarmed," Garv said, "which is very different from what most people think of a conscientious objector. Thousands of medics were conscientious objectors."
"I was raised to believe that life is precious, but I was also raised to
believe that the freedom of America is something worth dying for. I didn't volunteer for Vietnam, don't get me wrong, but I didn't run."
"I was convinced that I would die in Vietnam," he relates. Being a medic
made him a prime target, he says, because in killing medics, the Viet Cong sought to bring down morale among American troops. "Medics just didn't have a good longevity record."
When he found that the Army would allow him to return home to get his
college education, Garv said that he "didn't believe it until I left. The last couple of weeks I didn't want to do anything at all. To have survived that long only to die in the last week would've been a bummer," he said.
For his service in the military, Garv was awarded an honorable discharge,
the American Honor Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal.
Within two weeks of returning to America, Garv enrolled at what was then Southern Missionary College. The military experience changed him in many ways. "I was skinny, I was brown, and I was dirty," he jokes. "I sat in the bathtub for days just trying to get the dirt out of my pores."
"I came out of Vietnam focused, and everything I did had more meaning," he said. "When you're exposed to death like I was, if it doesn't affect you, then God help us."
In 1970, Garv graduated from Southern with a bachelor's degree in health,
physical education, and recreation. He went on to teach P.E. at Mt. Vernon Academy in Ohio for the next six years, where his wife Betty gave birth to their two children Steve, 30, and Leah, 27.
Garv received his Master's Degree in P.E. from Eastern Michigan University
in 1975, and, a year later, found himself teaching at Southern. In 1988, Garv earned his Doctor of Education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville ("I bleed orange," he says) and in 1991 he became Dean of the School of Physical Education.
"I love the students, man, that's the only thing that keeps me in teaching," he says. "They keep me young. I can't wait to get to work in the morning."
The Collegedale Veterans Memorial Park fund has been "maturing" in Garv's mind for six years, he said, since he began attending the Veterans of Foreign Wars meetings. "I've been seriously thinking about ways to honor veterans in this area," he said. "I've seen veterans parks all over the country, and the void I see here in the South gives me a personal challenge.
The project, which Garv hopes will be up by late April or early May, will,
in Garv's words, "Honor all veterans who have served and will ever serve."
Garv said that the park will honor all branches of the military from the
Marines to the Coast Guard. All 50 state flags will be displayed in the
order that they joined the union, and special recognition will be given to
those killed in action, missing in action, and those who have been prisoners of war.
"We're going to honor the merchant marines who transported equipment in
World War II and helped make the war possible," Garv said. "Also, we want to recognize conscientious objectors who have served in the military
honorably."
Military equipment such as planes, helicopters, and tanks will be on show at the park, which Garv called a "good, quality display."
"We want it to be a permanent, well-kept remembrance of the sacrifices that were made and the freedom we enjoy from their sacrifices," Garv said.