Cavezza’s name enshrined at NIM
Retired United States Army Lieutenant General Carmen Cavezza made a characteristic (for him) observation Wednesday night, when the grand hall at the National Infantry Museum was officially named in his honor.
“This building is not here to honor generals,” Cavezza said. “It is here to honor soldiers.”
If he had written that, as many in this community have seen before in these pages and elsewhere, it would have been “Soldiers” — the word always has been and always will be an upper-case designation for him.
As staff writer Chuck Williams rightly noted in his report on Wednesday night’s ceremony honoring the former commanding general of the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning (just one of the many leadership positions he has held in this area), Cavezza has long been the most prominent and familiar human connection between Columbus and the Army post so vital to the community and the country.
Most of the leadership roles he has performed here have come since his retirement 20-plus years ago, when the decorated Vietnam vet who had earned his way among the elite of the military hierarchy closed out a 33-year Army career. But it’s been one of those energetic “retirements” that look a lot like full-time work to most people.
When Atlanta won the bid for the 1996 Olympics and Columbus got in on the action by hosting the international softball competition, Cavezza served as executive director of Columbus ’96, the committee that planned and hosted the events, and which morphed into the Greater Columbus Sports & Events Council – which he also led.
The next phase of his “retirement” was as Columbus city manager starting in 1997, followed by seven years as executive director of the Cunningham Center for Leadership Development at Columbus State University from 2005-2012.
His latest leadership position, from which he recently retired, was as chairman and CEO of the National Infantry Museum Foundation.
As a list of Cavezza’s connections to and accolades from the community, civilian and military, that’s a relatively short one.
Among the more than 250 people on hand to pay tribute to Cavezza at Wednesday’s event were two of the retired general’s civilian ex-bosses — former CSU President Frank Brown and former Columbus Mayor (and fellow Army veteran) Bob Poydasheff, who offered tributes to his character.
Other tributes have come in the form of the more than $4 million in gifts and pledges for the museum, an effort led by, among others, W.C. Bradley Co. Chairman Steve Butler, attorney Cecil Cheves and surgeon (and Vietnam vet) Carl Savory.
“It is more than appropriate to name this room for him,” Cheves said Wednesday night. “It is appropriate to recognize the full measure Carmen contributed to this community through his military and civilian service.”
There are many things in this community that might rightly be named for Carmen Cavezza. But as he said, this one honors Soldiers.
This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Cavezza’s name enshrined at NIM."