Thatch Shepard

​Colonel (US Army, Retired) George T. “Thatch” Shepard, Jr., P.E. is a 1986 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point where he majored in mechanical engineering and played on the Army Water Polo team.  He culminated his over 26 years of active duty service as the Deputy Commander of the Mississippi Valley Division, US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Mississippi.  His company grade duty assignments included platoon leader, aide-de-camp, and executive officer time in the 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas as well as battalion S-3 and company command time with the 84th Engineer Battalion, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  Colonel Shepard served in varying capacities in four Corps of Engineers Districts to include the New Orleans District (Regulatory Branch), Wilmington District (Deputy Commander), Savannah District (Deputy Commander), and the Gulf Region North District (Deputy Commander), Tikrit Iraq.  Additionally, he served 3 years as an Assistant Professor at West Point where he taught the capstone Environmental Engineering course to West Point Cadets.  He also served 3 years in Belgium as the Director of Public Works for the BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) region.  He received his environmental engineering master’s degree at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida from 1995-1997.  He is a graduate of the Army’s Air Assault school, Airborne School, and Ranger School as well as the Engineer Officer Basic Course, Infantry Officer’s Advanced Course, and the Army Command and General Staff School.  His awards and decorations include the meritorious service medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star medal, and the Legion of Merit.   He was also awarded the Combat Action Badge for combat actions in Mosul Iraq in 2007.

Colonel Shepard now works in Jackson as a vice president of Burk-Kleinpeter, Inc., an engineering firm headquartered in New Orleans. He has been happily married to the former Jennie J. Bond from Wichita, Kansas since 1990.  They have three children, Samantha, 22, Mollie, 18, and Thatcher, 16 years old.  Samantha is a recent graduate of Ole Miss and currently employed in the Batson Children’s Hospital Emergency Room as an ER Tech.  Mollie recently graduated from St. Andrew’s Episcopal and is attending the United States Military Academy at West Point.  Thatcher is a junior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.  The Shepard family attends St. Richards Catholic Church in Jackson, Mississippi.