News        from ABAC

Michael D. Chason Director of Public Relations ABAC 30 -- 2802 Moore Highway Tifton, GA 31793-2601 Phone 229-391-5055 Fax 229-391-4781 mchason@abac.edu

IMMEDIATE APRIL 8, 2008

B.H. CLAXTON COMPLETES $100,000 ENDOWMENT TO ABAC

TIFTON --One alumnus of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College has decided to do something really special to honor ABAC’s 100^th birthday.

B.H. Claxton from Hazlehurst, a member of the Class of 1947, has completed a $100,000 endowment to the ABAC Foundation to fund the B.H. and Lanell Claxton Scholarship for upperclassmen in the Division of Agriculture and Forest Resources. Claxton is a dedicated ABAC supporter who has contributed to the ABAC Foundation for the past 21 years.

“B.H. is a true supporter of the ABAC, and we will continue to excel during our next 100 years with the support of those like him,” ABAC President David Bridges said. “Financial opportunities like this scholarship provide needed assistance for our current and prospective students.”

Claxton, a native of Jeff Davis County, received his Associate Degree from ABAC. He said ABAC became like a “second home” to him.

“ABAC just had such a family atmosphere to it,” Claxton said. “Even when I got older and came back to the campus, I saw retired teachers, and ABAC still had that family feel.”

Claxton remembers with clarity the day his father brought him to the campus with his footlocker.

“I got money for school by helping my father farm,” Claxton said. “I earned $300, and he told me it was for school, not for pleasure. ABAC was $49.95 a quarter at that time.”

To earn spending money, Claxton worked part time jobs at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station and at the ABAC dairy. During the summer of 1947, he helped his father build a house for $1 an hour.

Pleased with his son’s academic progress at ABAC and his commitment to teaching agricultural education, his father paid for his last quarter at ABAC as well as his class ring. Claxton went on to earn bachelor’s, master’s, and specialist’s degrees from the University of Georgia.

Claxton taught in the Veterans-Farm-Training Program until enlisting in the Army in 1950. He then taught Vocational Agriculture for 38 years, teaching in Jeff Davis County from 1958 until his retirement in 1989.

Claxton supervised apprentice teachers from UGA for 17 years. His FFA chapter provided numerous State FFA leaders including two State Presidents, one Secretary and four Vice Presidents.

Claxton is a member of the National Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association, Phi Delta Kappa, Kappa Delta Pi, National FFA Alumni, and the Georgia Retired Teachers Association. He has served as President of the Hazlehurst Lions Club, Jeff Davis County Chamber of Commerce, Jeff Davis Farm Bureau, the Agriculture Teachers Association, and the Jeff Davis Agricultural Fair Association. Claxton has also been an active member in his church.

Named the STAR Teacher at Jeff Davis High School three times, Claxton holds the Honorary State Farmer Degree as well as the Honorary American Farmer Degree. He was one of two agriculture teachers nationwide chosen to assist in writing the Agriculture Teachers’ Handbook. He has authored and co-authored several books on family history and history of the Jeff Davis County area.

Claxton and his son, Dr. Argene Claxton, are the only father and son members to be inducted into the Georgia Agriculture Education Hall of Fame. B.H. was a charter member in 2000 and Argene, an ABAC alumnus (Class of 1978), was inducted in 2007.

“ABAC is expanding by leaps and bounds,” Claxton said. “I want to give something back to benefit future ABAC students.”

Claxton’s gift is certainly one birthday present ABAC will never forget.

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