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Published on 08/06/99

College Mourns D. W. Brooks

When D. W. Brooks died in Atlanta August 5 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.

Experts/Sources:
Gale A. Buchanan Dr.
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