01/09/2008

AU Ag Alumni To Honor Five for Leadership

AUBURN, Ala. — Three outstanding individuals who have had a significant impact on agriculture and agribusiness in Alabama will be inducted into the Auburn University Agricultural Alumni Association’s Hall of Honor during ceremonies Thursday, Feb. 21, in Auburn.

The honorees are Gene Stevenson of Auburn, inductee in the education/government sector; Donald W. Sanders of Aliceville, agribusiness-sector award recipient; and Ned Ellis of Fort Deposit, award winner in the production category.

Also during the ceremonies, the association will present its 2008 Pioneer Awards to the families of the late James L. Thompson Sr. of Montgomery and the late Kenneth M. (Max) Autrey of Auburn in recognition of the contributions those two men made to agriculture and agribusiness in the state during their lifetimes.

The three Hall of Honor inductees all launched their agriculture-related careers with degrees from AU.

Stevenson, who earned his in agriculture science in 1951, worked for 36 years with the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station’s Department of Research Information, retiring as its director in 1992. Sanders earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering in 1969, a master's in 1971 and a master’s of business administration in 1974 and in the years since has worked to help build the family-owned Martin Truck and Tractor Inc. into a top-notch farm equipment dealership serving west Alabama and east Mississippi. Ellis graduated in ag science in 1953 and, in addition to his role as patriarch of Priester's Pecans in Fort Deposit, is a successful cattleman whose Circle E Farms is one of the top ChiAngus operations in the U.S.

Pioneer Award recipient Thompson, too, earned an ag science degree from Auburn and in 1950 opened a modest Montgomery flower shop that was the start of what today is CCC Associates, one of the most diversified horticultural companies in the nation. Southern Homes and Gardens in Montgomery is among the company's seven divisions. Autrey was the first head of the AU College of Agriculture's Department of Dairy Science when it was organized in 1948.

The awards banquet will be held at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center in Auburn. Registration begins at 5:30 p.m.; the banquet is at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to the banquet and awards ceremony are $50 per person and can be purchased through Feb. 7.

For ticket information, contact Elaine Rollo at 334-844-3204 or rollome@auburn.edu.

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For immediate release

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing
Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849

Contact: Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu