D.W. Brooks Awards: Memorial & History
Memorial News Release
College Mourns D.W. Brooks
By Janet Rodekohr
University of Georgia
When D.W. Brooks died in Atlanta August 5, 1999, at the age of 97, the founder
of Gold Kist Inc. and Cotton
States Insurance Companies left a legacy of service, innovation and dedication
to the agricultural community of Georgia.
"He was a great man who made immense contributions to agriculture and the
South," said Gale Buchanan, dean of the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Along with his many accomplishments in the business field, Brooks taught agronomy
at the University of Georgia in 1922 at the age of 19, making him one of the
youngest faculty members at the university. In recent years, he had served as
a visiting professor, which made him the oldest professor at the university.
Gold Kist and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences initiated
the D.W. Brooks lecture series in 1976, which invites leaders to address key
issues facing agriculture. The lecture is followed by the D.W. Brooks Faculty
Awards for Excellence, which are presented to distinguished faculty members for
their work in teaching, research and extension.
These awards have supported and moved forward some of the best work of the college,
Buchanan said.
"Mr. Brooks's great legacy to this college is the Brooks Awards of Excellence," Buchanan
said. "But more than that, he was just a great person."
In 1972, Brooks was the first living person to be inducted into the UGA
Agricultural Hall of Fame. He received the Distinguished Agribusiness Award
from the Georgia Agribusiness Council in 1975 and was named "Man of the
Year in Agriculture in the South" in 1966 by Progressive Farmer magazine.
Brooks served as a director for the Foundation for American Agriculture and the
National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and also as a trustee for the University
of Georgia Foundation.
(Janet Rodekohr is a former news editor and marketing specialist
with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)