Spring 2021 – PPG Brantley Knowles Tribute

Carrie Bradburn/CAPEHART

Brantley Knowles has done a spectacular job as our President General, bringing our organization to a whole new level. I am fortunate in being able to say she has also become a dear, dear friend.

Brantley is confident optimism. She is a woman of vision. She is a hard, well organized worker who has wonderful ideas and follows through. In the words of Lauren Knowles, she is “pretty cool.”

Like her predecessor, Sharon Vaino, Brantley visited almost every chapter across our nation and abroad, and she and Sharon have brought our community together. Our chapters are growing, there is real dedication to our mission, and it has been much more fun and interesting to meet people from all over with different backgrounds and experiences. In her travels, Brantley searched for, found and nurtured talent in our organization, motivating people to follow our mission, showing herself to be a true leader.

She had insight into the needs of our organization. She modernized us, giving us a presence, with the help of Nicole Scholet, on social media, and building community with posts about the lives and interests of our members. She has brought to our attention our many talented artists, gardeners, costume designers, accomplished professionals, and others. She brought us Laura Ramsay as Registrar General and worked with her to modernize our membership process. We now get letters from new members praising our process, and we are more effective in growing our membership.

She personifies, and has brought, elegance to our organization and beauty to our gatherings. She has also brought a wonderful attention to detail in everything she oversees.

We are indeed fortunate that such a talented individual has agreed to stay on as Chair of our Museum Committee and to continue working on our social media.

The organization is the better for Brantley’s service, I am better for her example and her friendship, and so, Brantley, on my own behalf, on behalf of our Board and the many members and beneficiaries of our organization, thank you for your wonderful leadership.