Harry S. Baker Distinguished Service Award For Cotton
Gaylon Booker, right, who has played a pivotal role at the NCC during his 40-plus years of service, was presented the Harry S. Baker Distinguished Service Award for Cotton loving cup by 2003 NCC Chairman Bobby Greene.
Gaylon Booker, who has played a pivotal role at the National Cotton Council (NCC) during his forty-plus years of service, beginning in Economic Services and culminating as president and chief executive officer, was honored as the recipient of the 2004 Harry S. Baker Distinguished Service Award for Cotton.
Booker joined the NCC in 1961 as a market analyst eventually leading the NCC’s Economic Services department, where he directed activities relating to world supply and demand for cotton and other fibers. Later, he served as vice president of Operations, and from 1988 until 2001 served as senior vice president. In March 2001, he became the NCC’s president and CEO. Since his retirement in February of 2003, Booker has served as a consultant to the NCC.
This award is presented to an individual, now deceased, who served the industry through the NCC, and who demonstrated character and integrity as well as perseverance and maturation during that service. No award was presented in 2004. Former NCC President Jack Hamilton, who served the NCC continuously from 1969 until his death in December 2001, was honored posthumously as the 2003 award recipient.
Four cotton producers who share a common passion – a concern for leaving the air, land or water better than they found it - were recipients of the 2004 High Cotton awards. Each recipient meets the criteria that have dictated the selection of the High Cotton awards since the program’s beginning in 1995; that is, they are full-time growers who produce a profitable, high quality crop while meeting the best standards of environmental stewardship. The 2004 winners were: Billy Sanders, Dooly County, GA; Fred Starrh, Corcoran, CA; Coyt Hendon, Porter Bayou, MS; and Ernest Bippert, Kingsville, TX
Robert and Lois Coker Trustees Chair in Molecular Genetics
Endowment: $1,000,000
The Coker Chair has helped Clemson University obtain general assembly appropriations for biotechnology research. The chair itself attracts not only a top-notch faculty member to fill it but additional exceptional faculty as well. The resulting momentum helps attract state investments in facilities such as the new science and technology center and the state-of-the-art greenhouse complex at Clemson. The Chair currently is vacant and a university search committee is seeking a replacement.
The C. Everette Salyer Fellowship in Cotton Research
Endowment: $1,000,000
This fellowship was inaugurated to honor the late California producer-ginner and former Cotton Foundation president, C. Everette Salyer. Doctoral and post-doctoral level students are able to study and conduct research geared to the sciences of producing and marketing cotton. It also provides funding for recipients to attend the annual Beltwide Cotton Conferences, where they are able to share their results with industry leaders. The current fellowship recipient is Randy Clouse, a graduate student in Texas A&M University's department of biological and agricultural engineering. He is developing and evaluating management strategies for a site-specific irrigation system for cotton crops. His research is aimed at optimizing water application to cotton, based on water availability and the cotton's physiological status. Clouse's fellowship will end in August 2005. The most recent endowment recipients received docorates in 2003 from Texas A&M - Ernest Clawson, Ph.D. in agronomy, and Paul Ragsdale, Ph.D. cotton breeding.
Proceeds from a Mississippi Valley Oilseed Processors Association endowment support the Annual Conference of the Oilseed Processing Clinic. The clinic is jointly sponsored with the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Southern Regional Research Center and the National Cottonseed Products Association.
A scholarship fund at Texas A&M University-Kingsville supports a student in a cotton-focused discipline. The fund was created from memorial scholarship funds commemorating the service of the late Foundation executive director, George Slater.
