News        from ABAC

Michael D. Chason Director of Public Relations ABAC 30 -- 2802 Moore Highway Tifton, GA 31793-2601 Phone 229-391-5055 Fax 229-391-5056 mchason@abac.edu

IMMEDIATE APRIL 6, 2006

ABAC HONORS ALUMNI AT HOMECOMING

TIFTON--Former Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College students and supporters were honored for professional achievement, community service, and service to the college during the 2006 ABAC Alumni Association Homecoming Awards luncheon on Saturday.

Award recipients included Teresa C. Lasseter, Distinguished Alumnus; Dr. J. Curtis Branch, Jr., DVM, J. Lamar Branch Award; James Emory Tate, Master Farmer; Lorene Manning Carter, Helen Brown Sasser Award; Dixie Sutton Lightfoot, Outstanding Business Leader; Sherry Hutchinson Waldrop, Outstanding Educator; C. Gary Lodge, M.D., Outstanding Health Care Professional; and Darby Thompson Sewell, Outstanding Young Alumnus. The Family Legacy Award was presented to the Render Hill Parkman Family. Dr. Larry D. Allen and Thomas B. Call were named Honorary Alumni.

Lasseter, a Tifton native, attended ABAC from 1970-1972, studying Home Economics. She joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Services Agency (FSA) in 1977 as a chief program assistant. She rose through the ranks, holding several positions including state executive director and Associate Administrator for Programs in the Washington, D.C. office. She was also appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the Georgia Ports Authority Board.

In Tifton, she served six years as the Executive Director of the Georgia Agrirama. She was Chair of the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce and received the Athena Award from the organization. She was also a director for the Tifton Rotary Club and past president of the Tift County chapter of the American Cancer Society. Currently, she is the administrator for the FSA in Washington, D.C. She and her husband live in Arlington, VA.

Branch is a 1952 graduate of ABAC who went on to earn his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Georgia and served in the U.S Army for two years in the Veterinary Corps. In 1956, he returned home to Tifton and opened his own practice. He has served two terms as Vice President of the South Georgia Veterinary Medicine Association and was honored in 2000 when he was presented with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Georgia (UGA) College of Veterinary Medicine.

He is a charter member of the ABAC Ag Alumni Council Board of Directors, serving on the board for 12 years, a member of the ABAC President’s Club, and has attended all 34 Dollars for ABAC Scholars events. He and his wife, Frances, have four children, all of whom attended ABAC. His family was named the first Legacy Family in 1999.

Tate began farming in 1972 when he finished his degree in Ag Equipment Technology from ABAC. He is the owner and operator of Tate Farms in Jeff Davis County, producing tobacco, Georgia Sweet Carrots, and hay. He is a third generation farmer and his family has been honored as Conservationist of the Year and as the Jeff Davis Young Farm Family.

He is a state director for the Georgia Farm Bureau and has served as the Jeff Davis County Farm Bureau president, president of the Tri-County Warehouse Venture, and past president of the Georgia Sweet Carrot Co-op. He has also been a director for the Georgia Tobacco Growers, director of Tobacco Associates and the past director of the USDA Tobacco Advisory Council. He and his wife, Betty Sue, have two sons, one of whom is an ABAC graduate.

Carter graduated from ABAC in 1955 with a degree in Home Economics and earned both her Bachelor’s of Science in Home Economics and her Master’s in Education from UGA. Her professional career began at Bacon County High School in 1957. She was named Educator of the Year for Bacon County in 1984. She was the advisor to numerous state Future Homemakers of America officers.

She is an active member of the Alma Garden Club and the Order of the Eastern Star, serving in every position including Worthy Matron and District Grand Deputy. She is also an active member of the Alma First Baptist Church. She served as the chair of the Golden Anniversary Reunion at ABAC in 2005. She and her husband, Steven, have two children.

Lightfoot attended ABAC as a non-traditional student from 1978-1985 while working at Colquitt EMC. She also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Georgia Southwestern on the ABAC campus. In 1985 she was named District Administrative Clerk at Colquitt EMC, and in 1986 she was named District Office Supervisor. She was promoted in 1996 to her present position of Tifton District Manager.

She is a past chair of the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce and received the Chamber Athena Award in 2001. She has served as president of the local board of the American Cancer Society and chaired the Tift County Relay for Life. She is also one of the founders of the Tifton Community Tennis Association. She is part of a three-generation ABAC family that includes her father, her husband, Marion, and their two children, Garrett and Whitney.

Waldrop attended ABAC from 1971-1976, studying Home Economics and secretarial science before finding her niche in education. She received her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Specialist degrees in Middle Grades Education from Valdosta State University (VSU). In 2005 she became a National Board Certified Teacher in Early Adolescent Math. She teaches eighth grade honors math and general math at Eighth Street Middle School in Tifton. She tutors before and after school, teaches in the alternative school at night, and also teaches summer school.

In her spare time she volunteers for Relay for Life and is a blood donor for the American Red Cross. She was one of the first members of the ABAC Golddusters dance team and enjoys her involvement with ABAC. She is a third generation ABAC alumnus.

Lodge graduated from ABAC in 1975 and Valdosta State in 1977. He received his M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia in 1981 and completed his residency in family practice in 1984. He has been practicing family medicine in Moultrie for over 20 years. He holds academic appointments as Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and Mercer University. He has served as chief of staff at Colquitt Regional Medical Center and was named the 2005 Family Medicine Educator of the Year by the Georgia Academy of Family Practice.

He is a member of First Presbyterian Church of Moultrie, serving as a deacon and an elder. He is also a member of the Kiwanis Club, the Arts Society and Ducks Unlimited. He was part of the fund raising efforts to bring ABAC on the Square to Moultrie. He and his wife, Carolyn, have two sons.

Sewell received her degree in Family and Consumer Sciences from ABAC in 1998 and went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s in Education degree from UGA in the same field. In 2002, she began teaching at ABAC as the only teacher in the Family and Consumer Sciences program. She oversees the preparation, teaching, grading and counseling of all 17 classes in the program, as well as the recruiting of prospective students. She is an academic advisor, faculty advisor to the Family and Consumer Sciences Club, and advisor for the state Family and Consumer Sciences organization.

In 2005, she received the Pacesetter Award from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at UGA and in 2004 was named Outstanding Professional by the Georgia Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. She currently serves on the ABAC Alumni Association Board of Directors. She and her husband, Jeff, live in Moultrie.

The Render Hill Parkman Family of Colquitt County has 15 members spanning four generations that are ABAC alumni. Render Hill Parkman attended ABAC in 1912 and his great granddaughter, Glenna Ruth Parkman, is a current student and member of the Golden Fillies softball team. Many of the Parkman family members contribute to ABAC as donors to the ABAC Foundation, Dollars for ABAC Scholars and the athletic boosters.

Parkman family members also contribute to their communities in a variety of professions ranging from pharmacist to graphic designer to entrepreneur to farmer. Sharon Davis Parkman was named Master Homemaker, now known as the Helen Sasser Award, in 1983 and Glenn Parkman was the Outstanding Young Alumnus in 1982.

Allen joined the ABAC faculty in 1994 as chair of the Division of Agriculture and Forest Resources. He helped to organize a group of students called the Rowdies into huge supporters of ABAC athletics, particularly basketball. Another of Allen’s legacies is appropriately named the Legacy Fund. That fund has since been endowed in excess of $10,000 and has helped a countless number of students. He was also instrumental in the ABAC Ag Classic Golf Tournament which has generated over $90,000 for student scholarships and learning resources over the last six years.

Allen received the 2000 Lanier Carson Administrative Excellence Award presented to the administrator who has made a significant impact on the campus and received the Student Government Association Impact Award in 1997, 2001, and 2004. Allen left ABAC in December of 2005 and is currently teaching in Echols County.

Call has served as ABAC’s Interim President since Sept. 15, 2004. Since he took office, the college has maintained its momentum with an all-time enrollment high of 3,423 students. Call helped to break ground on a $7 million Health Sciences building, which will be ready for classes in the fall term. He was also instrumental in the $32 million ABAC Place apartments’ project.

Call has held a variety of ABAC positions from a faculty member in 1981 to Interim Chair of the Division of Agriculture and Forest Resources in 1994. In 1995 he became Interim Registrar before being named Registrar in 1996. Call served as Interim Vice President for Student and Enrollment Services in November 2001 and was named Vice President in that area in 2003.

He has received the Impact Award twice and the Pacesetter Award twice, both awards presented by the students. When the new president takes office in a few weeks, Call plans to walk out of the president’s office into retirement.

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