FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Mayor Tim Kant announced longtime Fairhope resident Joseph “Billy” Garner as the city’s Veteran of the Year at Monday’s City Council meeting.

“Mr. Garner is an excellent choice,” Kant said. “As a member of the Greatest Generation, he served his country with honor in World War II. After the war, he returned to Fairhope to finish his education and later to raise his family, and, to this day, he has taken an active role in his community.”

Garner accepted the award and was joined by his wife, Ann, at the front of council chambers to be recognized.

“Well, you’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel,” said Garner about his being selected, resulting in laughter and smiles throughout the crowded council chambers. “It is an honor for me to receive this. So, God bless you.”

In 1945, when he was just 17, Garner enlisted in the U.S. Navy, following three older brothers into service.

“I wanted to join the Marines, but my dad wouldn’t sign for that, so we agreed on the Navy,” Garner recalled, according to a city news release.

He served onboard the USS Neville APA9 and the USS Livermore 429 in the South Pacific and was with the Livermore when it brought some of the first U.S. Occupational Troops into Japan after the surrender.

After his discharge from the military, Garner returned to Fairhope to finish high school and went on earn his undergraduate degree from Troy State University and a graduate degree from Auburn University. He served as a science and math teacher for 11 years in Fairhope, Mobile County and Coweta County, Ga., before returning to Fairhope to open an insurance business in 1963, with which he is still involved.

Garner’s nomination for Veteran of the Year was endorsed by members of the Gaston-Lee Post 5660 V.F.W., of which he is a member. He is also a member of Faith Baptist Church in Fairhope, where he has served as deacon, a Sunday school teacher, training union director and Sunday school secretary. He is a 50-year member of Greeno Masonic Lodge, and a member of the Civitan Club. In Fairhope, he has coached football and basketball, and he helped establish the city’s first league football program in the late 1950s.

 He and Ann have been married since 1955; they have three sons, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren with a sixth on the way.

This year’s selection of Veteran of the Year, was a tough choice, said selection committee chairman Joe Birindelli.

“We had a host of great candidates this year,” he said. “They were all very good choices, but we narrowed it down and recommended Mr. Garner. We think he is a fine choice for this year’s Veteran of the Year.”