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Local swimmer wins 7 medals

 
Published July 3, 1995|Updated Oct. 4, 2005

John R. Cox of St. Petersburg won seven medals in nine events in the U.S. Masters Swimming National Short Course Championships at Fort Lauderdale in May. Cox, a member of the St. Petersburg Masters Swim Team, was one of more than 2,000 swimmers from throughout the nation participating in the four-day event. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 91. Cox swam in the 60-64 age category. Medals were awarded in the first ten places of each event.

On the first day of competition, Cox set two personal records by placing seventh in the 1,000-yard freestyle and 10th in the 1,650 yard freestyle. On day two, he placed 13th in the 200-yard freestyle and seventh in a mixed medley 200-yard relay team. The final day of competition was a big medal day. He set another personal record in the 100-yard individual medley, placing seventh. He also placed fourth in the 100-yard freestyle, fourth in the male 200-yard freestyle relay, and eighth in the 500-yard freestyle. Cox swam a total of 9,400 yards that day.

A retired Army officer holding a civilian position, Cox is chief of the training support branch of the training division in the U.S. Special Operations Command Directorate of Operations at MacDill Air Force Base, and has been swimming competitively since he was 8 years old. He is a 1959 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

Former resident wins award for diplomacy

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Boston, and the U.S. Information Agency in Washington announced that Donna Marie Blatt Oglesby, a career Foreign Service officer, is the 1995 recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Public Diplomacy, considered the highest honor in the field of U.S. public diplomacy.

The honor was conferred on her at the Fletcher School's commencement ceremony in May. USIA is the foreign affairs agency responsible for understanding, informing and influencing other nations in promotion of the U.S. national interest.

Oglesby grew up in a U.S. military family overseas and is a graduate of Washington College and the Columbia University Graduate School in International Affairs.

She is the daughter of retired Army Lt. Col. Donald C. and Ella Marie Blatt of St. Petersburg.

She is the counselor for USIA, the highest position for a career foreign service officer in the agency. Oglesby and her husband, George W. Oglesby, live in Washington, D.C.

County wins six achievement awards

Two Pinellas County departments have won National Association of Counties Achievement Awards:

The Utilities Department won four awards, one for each of its innovative and educational water conservation projects. The projects recognized were "H20: On This Simple Molecule," the Enterprise Village Water Resources Program, Turn It Off Pinellas: Indoor Water Conservation Alliance, and the Xeriscape and Native Planting Demonstration Projects.

The Department of Public Affairs won two awards: one for "Serving You Every Day, Your Guide to Pinellas County Services" and one for the 1994 Hurricane Expo.

The NACo Achievement Award program is recognizes counties' effective and creative programs and shares those programs with other counties nationwide. A total of 13,079 applications from 190 counties in 33 states were entered in the competition. The awards will be presented this month at NACo's 60th annual conference in Atlanta. For information on the awards, call 464-4600.

This column is published in the City Times as space is available. Entries include St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, Gulfport, Kenneth City, South Pasadena and the gulf beaches. If you have good news to share, submit it to Good For You, c/o St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. Please include telephone number and return address.