President Wayne Clough receives a key to the city of Douglas, Ga., from Mayor Tony Paulk.

It was a day of handshakes, hugs and a hometown homecoming.

Douglas, Ga., stuffed the red carpet and instead made it a golden homecoming for native son Wayne Clough on June 14. City officials awarded him the key to the city, presented him with a proclamation and told him they are proud of him and his accomplishments and the admirable reflection he gives back to the citizens of this city of 10,000 people.

President Clough and his wife, Anne, stepped off the plane to a rousing recording of the Ramblin' Wreck fight song and the enthusiasm never waned.

"We just want to honor Wayne Clough for his achievements, not just as a 'thank you' from this community, but because he has done such great things for Georgia and the entire nation," said JoAnne Lewis, president of the Douglas-Coffee Chamber of Commerce.

"He's our hero," said Francis M. Lott, Arch 58, M Arch 59, CEO of Lott Properties in Douglas. "He's our most esteemed native son."

The city marker proudly announces that Douglas is the home of "Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology."

Clough has deep roots in Douglas. His father, who ran the ice and coal plant, served a term as mayor and established the city's first hospital. One of Clough's grandfathers also served as mayor.

But in speaking to the Rotary Club at lunch and as the keynote speaker at the chamber's annual recognition event that evening, Clough remembered a Tom Sawyer-type boyhood.

"Growing up in Douglas when I did was a great time for a boy who loved the outdoors and the freedom to roam. With its ready access to forests and swamps, Douglas was a place that allowed me to explore and my imagination to soar," he said.

And he recalled the old pond, which once was also the source of water for the steam engine trains, where he and his friends went swimming and all a boy had to do was "watch out for water moccasins."

At an afternoon press conference, Clough signed a partnership with South Georgia College President Torri Lilly that provides the college's students who complete two years and have a 2.7 grade point average automatic admission to Georgia Tech Savannah to pursue an engineering degree.

Clough told the chamber that Douglas had made a "remarkable transition" from a tobacco-based economy to a new industry and business model economy.

"Douglas has thrived," Clough said. "You have managed to preserve the parts of the old economy that still work and add the new."

Clough said Georgia Tech has also adapted to change. "The Georgia Tech of this century is known as one of the world's great universities."