Grimsley recently made a pledge to contribute $10,000 annually for the next 10 years to ABAC. He was also recently elected to the ABAC Foundation Board of Trustees and began serving a three-year term on July 1, 2000.
"My current goal is to reach the Golden Achievement level in the President's Club," Grimsley said. "The Foundation is a vehicle to generate necessary funds for the growth of ABAC, and I support it fully in the work that it does."
After turning down a football scholarship from Troy State University, Grimsley arrived on the ABAC campus in 1957 in pursuit of an agricultural economics degree. His college career soon ended when he was called home to Miller County in 1958 to help his parents work the family farm. He did not let this minor setback stand in the way of his goals, however.
In 1962, Grimsley acquired Farmers Fertilizer & Milling, Inc. Now a leading peanut company in Georgia, the company was sold to the Birdsong Company of Suffolk, Va., in May 2000. Grimsley remains on the business scene as a consultant for the company, looking on as his two sons work to continue its success.
"I always encourage today's youth to set their goals and go after them," Grimsley said. "If they want to achieve a goal, then it will happen."
Grimsley and his wife, Susan, whom he describes as "[his] right hand lady," still reside in Miller County.
"I have traveled a lot throughout the Southeast, and I still believe that ABAC has more to offer than any other college in Georgia," Grimsley said. "I love ABAC, and it will always mean so much to me."
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