Raburn set to become 4th-generation GCSU grad this weekend

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, May 7, 2025

When Preston Banks Raburn walks across the stage to accept his college diploma inside the Centennial Center Saturday, he’ll be furthering a family legacy that has stood for nearly a century.

The Georgia College & State University music major and soon-to-be alum will hold a degree from the same institution as his mother, Amy (Class of 1996); his grandmother, Carol Gaither Thigpen (‘69); and his great-grandmother, Dorothy Margaret Banks (‘29), making him a fourth-generation GCSU grad. The family history there actually goes back even further, as his great-great-grandmother Carrie Gaither attended what was then known as Georgia Normal & Industrial College from 1891 to 1893. She was a member of the college’s inaugural class that first met in September 1891. Neither the family nor GCSU has any record of whether Gaither graduated, so Raburn’s status as a fifth-generation grad is up in the air.

Regardless, Raburn’s ancestry has seen a ton of change on the local college campus. GCSU’s boundaries have grown, the mascot has gone from the Colonials to the Bobcats, and the school itself has been known by many monikers throughout its over 130-year life. As mentioned, it was Georgia Normal & Industrial College when his great-great-grandmother was on the grounds in the late 19th century. During that time, it was an all-girls school focused on preparing young women to enter the teaching field. The name in 1922 became Georgia State College for Women and kept its mission as a teacher’s college. Raburn’s great-grandmother, Dorothy Margaret Banks, followed that track when she graduated in 1929.

Next in line was another educator, Carol Gaither Thigpen, who started her college education at Georgia Southern before transferring to what in 1967 had become Georgia College at Milledgeville. Thigpen, married name Tanner, was a music therapy major at first. She lived in still-standing Beeson Hall, joined the choir, took organ lessons from the head of the music department inside Porter Hall, and made a lot of friends while in that major.

“All the music majors had a bond,” she said.

Tanner did decide to change majors, though, to elementary education. That decision stuck as she was a teacher throughout her working career.

The years wore on and brought her daughter Amy Tanner to the GCSU campus in the early ‘90s. As a Baldwin High grad, Amy was reluctant to stay in town.

“I actually didn’t want to go to Georgia College because I grew up in Milledgeville,” she said.

But that was the decision initially. The plan was to stay in her hometown for a couple of years, then transfer to The University of Georgia in Athens. A member of both the GCSU concert and pep bands, Amy soon into her tenure realized that attending college in her hometown wasn’t a simple extension of high school like she had feared.

“Dr. Shiver was here and offered me a scholarship for playing in the concert and pep bands,” she said. “In exchange for that, I lived in the dorms for free.”

Free housing wasn’t all she found.

“I got to live on campus and got to know people,” Amy added. “I also met Clint.”

“That’s why she didn’t transfer,” Amy’s mother interjected during the family’s interview.

Clint, being Clint Raburn, Amy’s future husband.

Both members of the band, they shared a love of music and eventually got married. Today, Amy is the community engagement pastor at Northridge Christian Church and Clint is an assistant principal/band director at Georgia Military College Prep School. Together, they have four sons, with Preston as the second oldest. When weighing his college options, he didn’t feel pressure to continue the family tradition, but did it anyway.

“I think the music department was really the appeal for me,” Preston said. “Dr. Andrew Allen had reached out to me a couple times throughout junior and senior year of high school. I really liked what he was doing and I had worked with the music department before, too, so that helped. There were a lot of different opportunities, which made me feel wanted and that I belonged before I even got here.”

As fate would have it, Preston would find love in the GCSU music department, just like his parents. He met fiancée Riley Greer during their time as Bobcats. They got engaged last November and will graduate with music degrees together later this week. Preston has accepted the role of band and choir director at Crawford County Middle High School in Roberta. Riley is going to teach choir in Peach County.

Whether the colors are Bobcat blue and green or Colonial brown and gold, it’s clear the GCSU campus will always hold a dear place in the family’s heart.