US' NCC announces award winners; Chris Breedlove is ginner of the year

The annual NCGA award is presented to a ginner in recognition of able, efficient and faithful service to the ginning industry and continuing those principles exemplified and practiced by Horace Hayden, a former NCGA executive secretary.

General manager and CEO of Willacy Co-op Gin in Raymondville, Texas, Breedlove has provided dedicated service to the industry during his career through participation in multiple organizations. He served as NCGA’s president in 2008, is a past president of Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association and current treasurer of the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Trust. A National Cotton Council Cotton Leadership Programme graduate, he is a NCC director representing the ginner sector.

The NCGA also recognised both Jimmy Stover and Russell Sutton as recipients of the NCGA’s 2021-22 Charles C Owen Distinguished Service Award. This award honours those who have provided a career of distinguished service to the US ginning industry, NCC said in a press release.

Stover, president of Stover Equipment Company in Corpus Christi, Texas, is a 1963 Oklahoma State University graduate. He was a cotton and wheat producer and cattle rancher in Oklahoma prior to building cotton module equipment. He was instrumental in the organisation and building of Tri County Gin in Chattanooga, Okla., where he served on its board for many years.

DSA recipient Russell Sutton, a Snyder, Texas, native and Texas Tech University graduate, has been involved with ginning his entire life as his family owned and operated a cotton gin. He has worked for many of the nation’s gin equipment manufacturers who have taken him all over the nation’s Cotton Belt and throughout the world.

During its annual meeting, the NCGA re-elected as its 2022 officers:  president – George LaCour, Jr., Morganza, La.; first vice president – Gene Seale, Pima, Ariz.; second vice president – Richard Lindsey, Centre, Ala.; and third vice president – Larry Black, Roscoe, Texas. Curtis Stewart, Spade, Texas, who served as NCGA president in 2020 and 2021, will serve as NCGA chairman. Harrison Ashley, Cordova, Tenn., is NCGA’s executive vice president.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)