Gwinnett County will mark Veterans Day on Wednesday, Nov. 11, with two free events held back-to-back at the Fallen Heroes Memorial behind the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, 75 Langley Drive in Lawrenceville: the county's annual Veterans Day Ceremony and the Gwinnett County Stand Down.
Two Free Events, Back to Back
The Veterans Day Ceremony begins at 11 a.m. and opens with a Veterans March, inviting every veteran in attendance to take part and be honored for their service. County officials will offer remarks, an honor guard will take part, and this year's keynote address goes to Dr. Daniel Kaufman, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general.
Running from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. — immediately before and after the ceremony, at the same location — the Gwinnett County Stand Down connects veterans and their families with resources and services. Registration is encouraged in advance.
A Keynote Speaker Gwinnett Knows Well
Before he became a familiar name in Gwinnett business and civic circles, Dr. Kaufman spent a career in uniform. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1968 and later returned there as Dean of the Academic Board and Chief Academic Officer. In between, he saw combat in Vietnam with cavalry and armor units, earning two Bronze Stars for heroism and two Purple Hearts. He went on to serve on the National Security Council staff at the White House, as a special assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and as a special assistant to three Army chiefs of staff, and helped reopen Baghdad and Mosul universities in Iraq and establish Afghanistan's national military academy in Kabul. He holds a master's in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a Ph.D. in international relations from MIT, and in 2017 was named a Distinguished Graduate by West Point.
Locally, Kaufman is best known as the founding, charter president of Georgia Gwinnett College — now president emeritus — a role the University System of Georgia appointed him to in 2005 after his retirement from the Army. He later served as president and CEO of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. Today he runs DKaufman Consulting LLC and sits on the boards of organizations including Explore Gwinnett, the Council for Quality Growth, Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, the Gwinnett Medical Center Foundation and the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia.
Plan Your Visit
Both events are free, open to all ages, and held rain or shine. If severe weather forces them indoors, into the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, visitors should use the parking deck at the corner of Constitution Boulevard and Nash Street — level P4 offers the most direct access to the building, including accessible parking — since the center's front entrance remains closed for an ongoing security renovation.
For a county that keeps adding new neighbors every year, Nov. 11 is a reminder of the residents who served long before most of them arrived — and a free, easy way for newcomers and longtime locals alike to say thank you in person.