Georgia Magazine - October 2012 - 15

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2012 Walter Harrison Scholarship winners Scholarship
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This year, seven outstanding Georgia students have each been awarded a $1,000 Walter Harrison Scholarship. The 2012 scholarship winners and their electric membership corporations (EMCs) include: Trinh Dao, Habersham EMC in Clarkesville; Haley Elizabeth Hagin, Colquitt EMC in Moultrie; Forrester Wright Mercier, Flint Energies in Reynolds; Allen Moore and Jacob Moore, North Georgia EMC in Dalton; Elizabeth Stephenson, Washington EMC in Sandersville; and Hawk Young, Alta-

Farmer of the year
Ocmulgee EMC Board President Barry H. Martin, of Hawkinsville, was recently named Georgia 2012 Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year. He is now competing with winners from nine other states to be recognized as the overall farmer of the year for the Southeast. The winner will be announced at the Sunbelt Expo on Oct. 16. An independent farmer for the last 40 years, Martin has served on the Eastman-based Ocmulgee EMC board of directors since 1972 and has been board president since 1982. He and his wife, Alice, have three grown children and six grandchildren. Martin currently farms approximately 800 acres with the help of two friends who work part time, primarily during planting and harvesting. He tends about 600 acres of his own land and rents another 200 acres, growing
October 2012

More online at www.georgiamagazine.org

PHIL BEARDEN / OCMULGEE EMC

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o la rs hi

Trinh Dao

Haley Elizabeth Hagin

Forrester Wright Mercier

Allen Moore

Jacob Moore

maha EMC in Lyons. The Walter Harrison Scholarship was created in 1985 by the board of directors of Georgia EMC, a trade association representing Georgia’s 42 electric cooperatives, and Oglethorpe Power Corp., Georgia Transmission Corp. and Georgia System Operations Corp., all in Tucker. The scholarship is named in honor of the late Walter Harrison, a pioneer in the rural electriﬁcation movement and a leader at the local, state and national levels in electric cooperative programs. It is funded

Elizabeth Stephenson

Hawk Young

by Georgia’s electric cooperatives, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Gresco Utility Supply Inc. Since 1985, nearly $148,000 has been awarded to students through the Walter Harrison Scholarship Program.

cotton, peanuts, corn, wheat and sorghum. In 1996, the sandy soil on Martin’s farm, which is located near the Ocmulgee River, caused him to implement more effective soilconservation practices. Martin and University of Georgia Pulaski County Extension Agent Ronnie Barrentine worked for the past 17 years to make conservation tillage work on Martin’s farm. As a result, Martin’s farming operation has Barry H. Martin utilizes conservation tillage on his been a model of efﬁciency Hawkinsville farm. The method effectively preserves and environmental steward- moisture and organic matter content in the soil. ship for other farmers in Pulaski County. room and what he does on his farm. According to Ocmulgee EMC He thinks progressively to stay modManager W.H. Peacock, “You can ern, efﬁcient and effective, while makdeﬁnitely see the parallels in Mr. ing sure every procedure and program Barry’s leadership in the board- improves the bottom line.”

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Georgia Magazine - October 2012

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