The Georgia Cotton Commission’s Trustees’ Awards were presented at the 2025 Georgia Cotton Commission Annual Meeting January 29 in Tifton. The Trustees’ Awards are awarded to individuals who have dedicated themselves to the advancement of the cotton industry in the state.
Producers, research and Extension specialists and other cotton industry associates of high character and integrity who have given exceptional service to the cotton industry are eligible to receive this award.
The award was named after the Georgia Colonial Trustees who set out to create an agricultural colony to expedite agriculture productivity, which led to a 10-acre “Trustee Garden” to display “modern” farming techniques. The Trustee Garden was established in 1734 in Savannah, Georgia.
Many crops were experimented with that first year, but cotton was the crop that thrived and has been planted in Georgia every year since. Previous winners of the Trustees’ Awards include Louie Perry, Mike Lucas, Bob McLendon, Ronnie Lee and Chuck Coley.
The recipients of this year’s Trustees’ Awards are Marvin Ruark and Johnny L. Crawford.
Marvin Ruark
Ruark grew up on his family’s cotton farm in Bostwick, Georgia, and has been farming for more than 50 years in Morgan County. Carrying on his family tradition, he bought the Bostwick Cotton Gin in the 1970s. Their family farm produces cotton, turfgrass, broilers and cattle.
Ruark has served as a board member of both Morgan County Farm Bureau and Georgia Farm Bureau. He was district supervisor for the Piedmont Soil and Water Conservation District and secretary/treasurer of the Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation. Ruark has also served as a council delegate and board member for the National Cotton Council, Southern Cotton Growers and the Cotton Board. He was a board member for the Georgia Cotton Commission from 1980 to 2015.
Ruark and his wife, Bebe, have four children, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandkids with one on the way. The Ruarks attend Gibbs Memorial Baptist Church in Bostwick.
Johnny L. Crawford
Crawford was born into a farming family in Grady County, Georgia. He graduated from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1961 and the University of Georgia in 1963. Crawford then obtained his masters’ degree and completed his Ph.D. in plant pathology.
In his first position with UGA, Crawford was Extension plant pathologist-cotton based in Tifton and was a charter member of the Extension Cotton Team. He became the Extension agronomist for cotton in 1986 and in the early 1990s became Head of the Extension Plant Pathology Department, where he continued to lead the Cotton Team.
Crawford was awarded the National Cotton Council’s Cotton Foundation Fellowship and was appointed D. W. Brooks Distinguished Professor of Agronomy in 1989. He was recognized as the Cotton Specialist of the Year in 1994.
After retirement, Crawford remained active in agriculture as a cotton producer and President and General Manager of South Central Georgia Gin Co. He is a deacon and Bible teacher at Northside Baptist Church of Tifton. He and his wife, Yvonne, live in Chula and have three children and eight grandchildren.
The Georgia Cotton Commission, which began in 1965, is a producer-funded organization located in Perry, Georgia. Georgia cotton producers pay an assessment enabling the Commission to invest in programs of research, promotion and education on behalf of all cotton producers of Georgia.
For more information about the Georgia Cotton Commission, call 478-988-4235 or visit georgiacottoncommission.org.