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Three Enter Alabama Agriculture Hall of Honor
AUBURN, Ala.—Three men who have made significant contributions to Alabama agriculture throughout their lives and careers now are members of the Auburn University Agricultural Alumni Association’s Alabama Agriculture Hall of Honor.
The three, inducted during ceremonies Feb. 23 in Auburn, include Huntsville cattleman and businessman Raymond B. Jones; William E. Powell of Montgomery, executive director of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association; and Auburn’s William E. Hardy, former College of Ag dean for instruction and a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology.
The Ag Alumni Association established the Hall of Honor in 1984 to honor and recognize living Alabamians for the leadership they have shown and the role they have played in strengthening the state’s agricultural industry. Each year, three new members are voted into the Hall of Honor—one from production agriculture, one from the agribusiness sector of the industry and one in the area of education/government.
Jones, the production-sector honoree, is chief executive officer of G.W. Jones and Sons real estate, engineering and insurance company in his native Huntsville and operates cattle farms in Madison, Marshall and Jackson counties with his son, Raymond Jr. Agribusiness-sector inductee Powell, who hails from Alabama’s Washington County, has been a leader in the cattle industry and in agribusiness at both the state and federal levels for almost 25 years. Hardy, the new education/government member, has been an agricultural economics faculty member at Auburn since 1972 and served as associate dean from 2000 to 2007.
Also during the ceremonies, the alumni group presented Pioneer Awards posthumously to two individuals who had a significant impact on Alabama agriculture during their lifetimes. Honored were the late Jamey M. Clary of Akron and the late Ross Debter of Horton. Clary was a Hale County Alabama Cooperative Extension System coordinator who played a vital role in building Alabama’s catfish industry. He died in 2007. Debter, who died in 2001, was a well-respected poultry producer and founder of the nationally recognized Debter Hereford Farm.
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Contact: Katie Jackson, 334-844-5887 or smithcl@auburn.edu
OFFICE OF AG COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 COMER HALL, AUBURN UNIVERSITY
AUBURN, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)
AgComm@auburn.edu
