{"id":506,"date":"2026-08-30T10:39:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southerngerontologicalsociety.org\/sgs\/ambassadors-2\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T08:18:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T08:18:36","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/southerngerontologicalsociety.org\/sgs\/about\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The History of SGS<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Southern Gerontological Society had its roots in the Southern Conference on Gerontology. This informal organization, founded in 1951 under the leadership of staff from the University of Florida’s Institute on Gerontology, was comprised of pioneer individuals interested in and concerned with aging issues. This organization was the first regional and one of the first national aging interest groups organized in the United States. It was organized ten years before the Handbook of Social Gerontology was published and fourteen years before the Older Americans Act of 1965 was enacted.<\/p>

The Western Gerontological Society (now the American Society on Aging) was formed in 1954 and hired a paid staff in 1970. Many of those working in the Southern Conference wanted to see the same type of organization formed for the Southern constituency. On March 28, 1978, thirty-four of these individuals met at their own expense in Gainesville, Florida. They conducted a workshop to propose a plan of organization that could be presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Southern Conference that was scheduled for May, 1979 in St. Petersburg, Florida. At this workshop they voted to organize sessions for the new Southern Gerontological Society. The following persons were elected as chairpersons for the committees to carry out this plan:<\/p>