Southeast Region

History of the
Southeast Region Association
of the
American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association
By
Dr. Charles E. McDaniel
Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
March 2, 1991

The Southeast Region Association of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association grew out of the Southern Safety Conference and Exposition, and organized group of professionals promoting safety in fourteen southern states. The Southern Safety Conference was established in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. A number of high school driver education teachers and others working with public schools at the local, state and national levels also attended the annual conference.

The program of the Southern Safety conference had among its Divisions an Education Division composed of the Higher Education Safety Section, the Elementary Education Safety Section, The Driver and Traffic Safety Section, and an active Youth Safety Section.

Concurrently, the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association established in 1957, as well as a number of state driver and safety education programs. The National Commission on Safety Education of the National Education Association, served as the ADTSEA Secretariat for a number of years. The ADTSEA constitution identified nine (9) southern states that would make up the Southeast Region. These states were Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Also added were the territories of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

For a number of years, driver education professionals as well as members of ADTSEA attended the Southern Safety Conference and were largely responsible for the Education Division program and activities. In the late 1960’s, some of the ADTSEA members who regularly attended the Southern Safety Conference started promoting the idea of establishing a Southeast Region Association of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association. Under the leadership of individuals such as Tom Love, David Sahler, Ed Williamson, J.B. Angelo Crowe, and many others, an organizational meeting of a new entity, to be known as the Southeast Region Association of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association was held at the Southern Safety Conference in Memphis, Tennessee in the Tennessee Room of the Chisca Plaza Motor Hotel from 4 – 6 p.m. on March 2, 1970. J.B. Angelo Crowe set up and presided over the meeting for the purpose of organizing the Southeast Region Association as a separate entity. J.B. Angelo Crowe was serving as the senior Southeast Board Member of ADTSEA at the time. Tom Love, from Gainesville, Florida; was elected the first President of the Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA.

At the 1971 meeting in Baton Rouge , Louisiana , a draft copy of a constitution was discussed and eventually referred to a constitution committee. The committee worked during the year and presented their report to the second annual conference, held in conjunction with the 1972 Jacksonville , Florida , Southern Safety Conference. The first constitution of the Southeast Region Association of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association was approved in Jacksonville , Florida and became effective on September 1, 1972 . The Constitution was amended on February 27, 1983 . Our current constitution was last amended on March 3, 1990 .

Starting in the early to mid 1970’s, the relationship between the Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA and the Southern Safety Conference became seriously strained. It became increasingly more difficult to receive information on the dates and/or locations of the conferences, hotel reservation request forms, meeting rooms, conference planning input, AV equipment, etc. As a result, attendance at the Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA began to seriously decrease until the membership in attendance was much less than 25 people. At the 1979 Southern safety Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the membership in attendance voted unanimously to server our relationship and ties with the Southern Safety Conference and Exposition and to meet separately in Atlanta, Georgia for the 1980 Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA Conference. On August 6, 1991; the Southeast Region Association ADTSEA was incorporated as a non-profit organization under rule 501 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code 1986.

Generally, the conference is held during the last weekend in February. Attendance increased to one hundred thirty (130) attendees by the 1990 conference but declined at the 1993 and 1994 conferences which were held in Knoxville, TN and Orlando, FL, causing a return to Atlanta in 1995.

The Southern Safety Conference and Exposition’s annual meeting was abandoned in the early 1980’s. The withdrawal of the Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA from the Southern Safety Conference and the end of the Education Division of the Conference was a definite contributing factor in the demise of the Southern Safety Conference and Exposition.
Since the 1970 organizational meeting, conducted by J.B. Angelo Crowe, and the first annual meeting when Tom Love was elected President, through the 1994-95 school year with Robyn Hagler of Alabama serving as President, there have been twenty-five (25) separate Presidents as follows:

2009-10	Nada Icenogle	Myrtle Beach, SC
2008-09	Charles Lee	Myrtle Beach, SC
2007-08	Deb Ogden	Myrtle Beach, SC
2006-07	JoEllen Suter, VA	Myrtle Beach, SC
2005-06	Karl Logan, NC	Myrtle Beach, SC
2004-05	Kal Kelliher, GA	Myrtle Beach, SC
2003-04	Carol Hardin, VA	Myrtle Beach, SC
2002-03	Ed Jones, FL	Myrtle Beach, SC
2001-02	Ray Sparks, NC	Myrtle Beach, SC
2000-01	James Johnson	Myrtle Beach, SC
1999-00	James Brooks, MS	Atlanta, GA
1998-99	Richard Stryker, FL	Charlotte, NC
1997-98	Jane Preston, VA	Myrtle Beach, SC
1996-97	David Donaldson, TN	Atlanta, GA
1995-96	Maynard Bridges, NC	Atlanta, GA
1994-95	Robyn L. Hagler, AL	Atlanta, GA
1993-94	Fred O. Thomas, Jr., FL	Orlando, FL
1992-93	George E. Tyson, Jr., VA	Knoxville , TN
1991-92	Roy H. Turner, Jr., AL	Atlanta GA
1990-91	Tom Walters, Fl	Atlanta , GA
1989-90	Dave Sahler, MS	Atlanta , GA
1988-89	Wiley Elliott , NC	Atlanta , GA
1987-88	Ross F. tingle, Jr., MS	Atlanta, GA
1986-87	Will K. Parnell, Al	Atlanta , GA
1985-86	Dale E. Roe, VA	Atlanta, GA
1984-85	Glenn S. Cantley, FL	Atlanta , GA
1983-84	Joe D. Sabbadino, SC	Atlanta, GA
1982-83	Karen H. Womack, MS	Atlanta , GA
1981-82	Edward Kapushy, FL	Atlanta , GA
1980-81	C. Edward Browning, NC	Atlanta, GA
1979-80	Frank Young, MS	Atlanta , GA
1978-79	Bert Thompson, TN	Nashville , TN
1977-78	Reed Brown, FL	Atlanta , GA
1976-77	Charles McDaniel, NC	Atlanta , GA
1975-76	Wyatt Tullos, MS	Birmingham , AL
1974-75	Tom Love, FL	Atlanta , GA
1973-74	Tom Love, FL	Richmond , VA
1972-73	Tom Love, FL	Atlanta , GA
1971-72	Tom Love, FL	Jacksonville , FL
1970-71	Tom Love, FL	Baton Rouge , LA

Served on ADTSEA Board of Directors

The Southeast Region Association of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association has had a number of individuals serving on the ADTSEA Board of Directors. The following is a listing of those individuals, the years on the Board of Directors and the state they represented.

1957-58                Mitchell Menacof, fl
1958-59                Florence S. Burch, SC
1957-60                David Sahler, MS
1959-61                Mitchell Menacof, FL
1960-62                L.L. Dunlap, SC
1961-63                Ed Williamson, FL
1962-64                G.A. Garrell, SC
1963-65                James E. Hall, NC
1964-66                Thomas A. Seals, FL
1964-67                J.B. Angelo Crowe, GA
1965-66                Charles E. McDaniel, FL
1967-68                Wendell B. Hudson, TN
1967-69                Vernon P. Gainey, NC
1968-70                J. B. Angelo Crowe, GA
1969-71                Wendell B. Hudson, TN
1970-72                Tom Love, FL
1971-73                Sheldon B. Wittle, FL
1972-74                John C. Draper, AL
1973-74                William D. Lee, Jr., NC
1975                       John E. Scblick, NC
1974-76                Wayne Chaffian, TN
1975-77                James E. Parnell, FL
1976-78                Isaac Barnett, NC
1977-79                Dot M. Kualheim, AL
1978-80                Billy G. Johnson, VA
1979-81                Monty O. Parker, GA
1980-82                Reed B. Brown III, FL
1981-83                Robert C. Kluttz, NC
1982-84                Monty O. Parker, GA
1983-85                A.F. Thompson, TN
1984-86                G.E. Tyson, VA
1985-87                Larry Lewis, Jr., NC
1986-88                Karen E. Womack, MS
1987-89                Fred O. Thomas, Jr., FL
1988-90                Tiberius Small, VA
1989-91                Larry Lewis, Jr., NC
1990-92                David H. Sahler, MS
1991-93                Joseph Walls, GA
1992-93                Arlene Cundiff, VA
1992-94                G.E. Tyson, VA
1993-95                Roy H. Turner, Jr., AL
1994-96                Ed Jones, FL
1995-97               Joseph Walls, GA

Served as Executive Secretary

In addition to the Presidents, other officers and Boards of Directors, there have been five (5) Executive Secretaries of the Association:

Mr. Tom Love Florida,                                   until 1976
Dr. Harry MacDonald North Carolina,      1976-79
Mr. J.B. Angelo Crowe Georgia,                1979-91
Mr. Marion C. Pierson Alabama,               1991-92
Mr. Roy H. Turner, Jr. Alabama,                1992-present

Served as ADTSEA President

The Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA has also provided four (4) Presidents for the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association. They are:

1963-64                Ed Williamson, Florida
1973-74                J.B. Angelo Crowe, Georgia
1980-91                Charles McDaniel, North Carolina
1987-88                Billy Johnson, Virginia

Former SERA members that were among the founders of ADTSEA

When our parent organization, the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association was formed in 1957, six Southeast Region ADTSEA members, were among the founders of ADTSEA.

Dave Sahler, Mississippi;
Ed Williamson, Florida;
Florence S. Burch, South Carolina;
Charles E. Barnett, South Carolina;
Mitchell Menacof, Florida; and
John R. Grinnell, Virginia

Accomplishments of SERA and/or members

Over the past thirty-five to forty years of high school driver education in the Southeast Region of the United States, there have been a great many accomplishments in the field of Driver and Traffic Safety Education:

Statewide driver education programs were established in all nine (9) southeastern states.

Some of the highest teacher certification requirements for driver education teachers were established and implemented.

Some of the best reimbursement programs for high school driver education were implemented.

Simulation systems and high school driver education ranges were developed widely in the Southeast.

Federal funds for driver education were readily available in the Southeast.

The Southeast has hosted five ADTSEA Conferences: Miami, FL-1961 & 1976; Atlanta, GA-1970 & 1992; Charlotte, NC -1979; and Norfolk, VA-1985.

The Southeast region has provided four (4) ADTSEA Presidents.

The NHTSA National Driver Education Demonstration Research Project was conducted in DeKalb County, GA.

Several quality traffic safety research organization and safety centers were developed in the Southeast.
The Southeast Region Association of the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association has grown into the most outstanding of the six (6) ADTSEA Region groups in the United States.

The Southeast Region organized the Richard Bishop Fund and the Memorial Fund for contributions to ADTSEA in memory of the deceased members of ADTSEA.

The Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA organized on of the first computer program workshops in driver education. The first National Computer Program workshop in Driver Education was held prior to the 1985 ADTSEA Conference in Norfolk, VA.

The Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA sponsored the Southeast Region Auto Skill-A-Rama in Atlanta, GA, May 10-11, 1985 and May 9-10, 1986.

A Broadside workshop was held in Atlanta, GA on February 23, 1985 in conjunction with the Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA Annual Meeting.

Schools from the fourteen Southern Safety conference and nine Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA states have actively participated in the National Student Safety Program. Three NSSP National Conferences have been hosted by states in the Southeast Region: University of South Alabama – Mobile, AL in 1983; University of South Mississippi-Gulf Park – Long Beach, MS in 1986 and University of Alabama in Huntsville – Huntsville, AL in 1993.

These are only a few of the accomplishments in the Southeast. However, these accomplishments, as notable as they are, are not the major strengths of the Southeast or the Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA. The dedication to quality driver education and the concern for producing quality instruction to young drivers in every Southeastern state are the factors that give the Southeast and the Southeast Region Association of ADTSEA the leadership rank it has attained.

I would like to express my appreciation to J.B. Angelo Crowe, Dave Sahler, and others who assisted me in gathering the information and dates included in this report.

Updated by Roy Turner, July 21, 1994.

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