St. Mary’s Hospital of Athens, Georgia announced this week that Mr. Edward j. Fechtel, jr. has assumed the position of Assistant Administrator on the hospital’s administrative staff.

MR. FECHTEL, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, was formerly Assistant Administrator of St. Francis Xavier Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina. Besides undertaking general administrative duties, Mr. Fechtel has joined St. Mary’s to co-direct the hospital’s building program and to represent the hospital in community relations. This summer St. Mary’s Hospital plans to begin construction of its new 135-bed hospital in a $3,000,000.00 program recently made possible by a hill-Burton grant.

MR. FECHTEL was graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1957 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. After serving two years on active duty with a commission in the United States naval Reserve, Mr. Fechtel entered the Graduate Program in hospital Administration at Emory University in Atlanta. He was awarded a master of Business Administration from Emory University in 1961 at the completion of a one year’s hospital administrative residency at Duval medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mr. Fechtel is married to the former Miss Sheilah Ann McCauley, a Registered Nurse and a graduate of St. Joseph’s Hospital of Nursing in Atlanta. The Fechtel’s reside in Athens at 552 A Cobb Street.