SUNY Cortland Athletics

Army General Ann Dunwoody became the first woman in U.S. military history to be promoted to the rank of four-star general in November 2008 and retired this past August after 38 years of service. The former Red Dragon gymnast and tennis player graduated with a degree in physical education and was commissioned directly into the Women’s Army Corps.  She received a Master of Science in Logistics Management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1988 and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1995.

When Dunwoody began her military career, women had not yet been admitted to West Point. Her brother, father, grandfather and great-grandfather all attended the U.S. Military Academy, a family history that stretches to 1866.  Dunwoody’s father, a career Army officer, was a veteran of World War II and Korea and served in Vietnam during her college career.

In 1992 Dunwoody became the first woman to command a battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division. She was the first female general at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the first woman to lead the Combined Arms Support Command at Fort Lee, Va. Dunwoody was deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Storm as a division parachute officer for the 407th Supply and Transportation Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division.

She served as the 1st Corps Support Command Commander in the deployment of the Logistics Task Force in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Prior to her retirement, she was the Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command.

The Randolph, N.Y., native earned the 2011 Theodore Roosevelt Award, the NCAA’s highest honor. She joined a prestigious list of “Teddy Award” winners that includes former U.S. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

Earlier this year, she received the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) annual Achievement Award and was included on the Women’s Sports Foundation’s “40 for 40” list, which honored women of accomplishment who played high school or college sports after the enactment of Title IX. Dunwoody’s peers on that high-profile list included U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, tennis star Venus Williams and legendary University of Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summit.

Dunwoody was honored as a SUNY Cortland Distinguished Alumna in 2001 and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the College in 2009.