Robert Malone
ATHENS-A man who served his county and continues to serve his community is being honored as the grand marshal of the upcoming Trinity Parade.
Robert Malone of Athens is a 1963 graduate of Trinity High School. He is retired from the U.S. Army and served 42 years as Department of Defense chief meteorologist. He returned to Athens in 2008 to take care of his mother, Maggie Malone, a retired Athens City Schools teacher.
Malone is in his 14th year as pastor at Village View UMC. He has served as a commissioner on the Athens Planning Commission and Athens Zoning Board of Adjustments.
He is a member of the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame, Class of 2017.
Malone supports various programs and projects associated with the historic Trinity-Fort Henderson site and Lincoln-Bridgeforth Park, and is often seen in his yellow truck participating in the Trinity Parade and the Veterans Day Parade.
Throughout the years he has supported different Relay for Life events from offering prayer at the countywide celebration to buying meals and chicken stew to support Relay fundraisers, and then asking that some of those meals be provided to people in need.
The parade will be September 3 at 10 a.m. and will assemble at the Waddell Center on Washington Street and will follow Washington Street to The Square and take Brownsferry Street back to Hine Street to Lincoln-Bridgeforth Park.
The parade is part of the Trinity Grand Reunion weekend which also includes a community open house at the Pincham-Lincoln Center from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The center is located on the Trinity-Fort Henderson site at 606 Trinity Circle.
The reunion and parade honor the legacy of Trinity, which served as the county’s only all-black high school until integration in 1970. The late City Councilman Jimmy Gill and the Class of 1966 kept the school spirit going by creating this bi-annual reunion.
About Trinity and the site
Missionary Mary Wells helped establish Trinity School in Athens after the Civil War to educate former slaves. The Limestone County Board of Education eventually took over operation of the missionary school, and it served as the only all-black high school in the county.
During integration, Trinity’s students were sent to predominately white schools in Athens and Limestone County, and over time, the school fell into disrepair. The city worked with the Athens-Limestone Community Association on a grant project to create the Pincham-Lincoln Center to host educational, community and cultural events and share the site’s history.
The school colors are purple and gold, and the school mascot is a panther.
