Argene Claxton from Perry will be presented with the 2013 J. Lamar Branch Award
on March 2 at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College during the annual ABAC
Alumni Association awards ceremony.
Advance
tickets for the 11 a.m. brunch awards ceremony are $25 each. No tickets will be available on the day
of the event. The ceremony at the
Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village at ABAC recognizes ABAC
alumni who impacted the college and their communities in significant ways.
The event is a part of the Celebrate
ABAC Alumni Weekend. For more
information or to purchase tickets, interested persons can call the College
Advancement office at (229) 391-4895 or visit the web site at www.abac.edu/celebrate. {{more}}
The J. Lamar Branch Award was established as the Outstanding Agricultural
Leader Award in 1987 to recognize alumni who have distinguished themselves in
the various non-farming areas of agriculture, including education, extension,
research and business. In 1989 the
Alumni Board of Directors voted to name this award in memory of J. Lamar
Branch, an alumnus who was himself an outstanding agricultural leader in the
area of agricultural education. It
is based on professional achievement, community service and support of ABAC.
1976-78. Focusing on education and
agriculture, he received his bachelor’s degree in 1980, his master’s degree in
1982, and his specialist degree in 1984 from the University of Georgia. In 2005, he also received a doctorate
of educational leadership from Argosy University. He began teaching at Perry High School in 1980.
agricultural education and has developed a top quality FFA program at the
school, advising seven FFA national award-winning teams.He
was inducted into the Georgia Agriculture Education Hall of Fame in 2007. He is the youngest member to be
inducted, the only member still teaching, and is part of the only father and
son inductees. Claxton’s father, B.
H. Claxton, was a charter member. He has also received Teacher of the Year at
Perry High School twice, received the UGA College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences Alumni Award of Excellence in 2006, and won The Big Owl
Award four times from the Georgia Vocational Agricultural Teachers Association
(GVATA).
His
professional memberships include the GVATA, serving as state president in
1997-98. He was a member of the
Professional Representative Committee for agriculture teachers for 15 years.
In his community, Claxton beautifies his
hometown by doing landscape projects. His most recent landscaping
accomplishments include the new Georgia Farm Bureau and the Westmoreland Animal
Hospital. He is currently working with the Houston Medical Perry Hospital to
prepare a garden to help raise food for the hospital’s use. He is a member of
Cross Point Baptist Church and is working with some of the youth to prepare a
spring garden that will provide food to local outreach programs Grace Village
and ABBA House. He and his wife,
Sandy, have two children, Katie and Tyler. Katie, an ABAC graduate, is attending UGA, and Tyler is a
senior at Perry High School.
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