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February 12, 2004
Contact:
Tom Davis or Alison
Hardy : (334) 670-3196; tomdavis@troy.edu
Office of University Relations
253 Adams Administration
Troy, AL 36082
(334) 670-3196
(334) 670-3274 (fax)
| Georgia Inspector General speaks at TSU College of Business convocation |
| Gen.
James Sehorn, Georgia's first Inspector General and a Vietnam veteran,
encouraged Troy State University students to maintain honesty, integrity
and ethics at a convocation of the Sorrell College of Business Thursday. “You have to have ethics and you have to maintain and exercise those standards no matter what the situation,” Sehorn said. “Honesty and integrity; lacking either, we have neither a worthy course in life nor the ability to maintain it. We become miserable creatures not worthy of trust and absent of honor.” Sehorn, who earned a master's degree from Troy State University Montgomery in 1984, was appointed to the Inspector General post created by Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue in an effort to promote accountability and root out fraud and abuse in state government. Sehorn also spent almost 30 years serving in the U.S. Air Force, more than four of those years were spent as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam after the plane he was flying was shot down. “More than 500 men in that Vietnam prison remained committed to the code of ethics that they believed in,” Sehorn said. “Of the 556 men that were there, less than a dozen-and-a-half acted less than honorably.” Sehorn challenged students to discover their own standards of ethics and integrity and to maintain them. “I have my ethical standards and they are based on the principles of my faith,” he said. “You'll have yours. Make sure they're worthy of your commitment and stick to them. They'll guide you in times of emergency and stress.” Sehorn lives with his wife, Jo, in Kathleen, Ga. They have four children and four grandchildren. |