Ron Craft, general manager of New-Tex Gin in Plains, Texas, is the 2019 Horace Hayden National Cotton Ginner of the Year. Smith has served in many U.S. cotton industry leadership capacities and provided years of dedicated service.
The annual National Cotton Ginners Association’s award is presented to a ginner in recognition of: 1) able, efficient and faithful service to the ginning industry and 2) continuing those principles exemplified and practiced by Horace Hayden, a former NCGA executive secretary.
Craft, a fifth-generation ginner who received the award at NCGA’s recent 2020 annual meeting in New Orleans, was a member of National Cotton Council’s 1991 leadership class. He served as the NCC’s chairman in 2018 and the NCGA’s president in 2016. There are few committees within the NCGA and NCC on which he has not served.
Craft also is a former president of the Plains Cotton Ginners Association, Texas Cotton Ginners Association and Texas Independent Ginners Association. He has served as a Plains Cotton Growers director and currently serves as a Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation director.
Craft also participates in community activities and is treasurer of First Baptist Church in Plains. He earned the rank of sergeant as a reserve deputy with the Yoakum County Sheriff’s Department and has served in the department for the past 35 years. He is a past president of the Plains Chamber of Commerce.
The National Cotton Council provided this article.
NCGA Distinguished Service Award Goes To Tim Loonam
The National Cotton Ginners Association recognized Tim Loonam as the recipient of the NCGA’s 2019-20 Charles C. Owen Distinguished Service Award. For the past 30 years, the award has honored those who have provided a career of distinguished service to the U.S. ginning industry.
A Texas native and Navy veteran, Loonam earned a bachelor’s degree in management from Texas A&M University in 1972. Since 1990, he has specialized in providing workers’ compensation insurance and loss control services for ag-related businesses.
Since 1996, he has worked tirelessly on administration, claims and loss control for Texas cotton gins and other agricultural operations as administrator of the Texas Cotton Ginners Association’s Trust. Over that time, the trust has grown its annual revenue premium from $4 million to just over $13 million and has expanded its coverage to include other agricultural operations. The trust began with about 50 cotton gins and now has well over 150 Texas gins.
Loonam has long been an active member of the Safety Specialist Forum and makes it a point for his loss-control team to participate and contribute to the forum. He and his team also are active in the NCGA ginner schools each year.
During NCGA’s annual meeting, the organization elected its 2020 officers: president – Curtis Stewart, Spade, Texas; first vice president – George LaCour Jr., Morganza, Louisiana; second vice president – Gene Seale, Pima, Arizona; third vice president – Richard Lindsey, Centre, Alabama; and chairman – Wes Morgan, New London, North Carolina. Harrison Ashley of Cordova, Tennessee, serves as NCGA’s executive vice president.
The National Cotton Council provided this article.
Cotton’s Calendar
March 2-4: Cotton Board Meeting, Loews Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee
March 18: Staplcotn Board of Directors Meeting, Greenwood, Mississippi
April 2-3: TCGA Annual Meeting and Trade Show, Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, Lubbock, Texas
April 14-16: American Cotton Producers Spring Meeting, Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas, Irving, Texas
April 15: PCCA Board, Delegate Body & Marketing Pool Committee Meetings, Lubbock, Texas
May 6-8: ACSA Convention, Ritz Carlton, Washington, D.C.
May 18-20: National Cottonseed Products Annual Meeting, Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort, Miramar Beach, Florida
May 18-20: National Cottonseed Products Association Annual Meeting, Destin, Florida
May 20: PCCA Board of Directors Meeting, Lubbock, Texas
May 21: Calcot Board of Directors Meeting, San Antonio, Texas
June 16-18: Cotton Incorporated Board Meeting, Omni Mandalay Bay, Dallas, Texas
June 17: Staplcotn Board of Directors Meeting, Greenwood, Mississippi
June 17: PCCA Board, Delegate Body & Marketing Pool Committee Meetings, Lubbock, Texas
June 18: Calcot Board of Directors Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona
July 9-12: Cottonseed & Feed Association 2020 Annual Meeting, Intercontinental Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri
July 16: Calcot Board of Directors Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona
July 20-23: Southern Southeastern Mid-Year Board Meeting, Sheraton Bay Point, Panama City Beach, Floridaorida
Aug. 4-6: Cotton Board & Cotton Incorporated Joint Board Meeting, The Phoenician, Scottsdale Arizona
Aug. 19: PCCA Board, Delegate Body & Marketing Pool Committee Meetings, Lubbock, Texas
Aug. 26-28: NCC Mid-Year Board Meeting, Omni Louisville Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky
Sept. 16: PCCA Annual Meeting and Board of Directors Meeting, Lubbock, Texas
Sept. 16: Staplcotn Board of Directors Meeting, Greenwood, Mississippi
Sept. 28: Calcot Board of Directors/Auditors’ Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona
Sept. 29: Calcot Board of Directors Meeting/93rd Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona
Oct. 21: PCCA Board, Delegate Body & Marketing Pool Committee Meetings, Lubbock, Texas