Posted February 10, 2015
MEMPHIS – The late Duke Kimbrell, a nationally recognized North Carolina textile manufacturer and cotton industry leader, is the recipient of the 2014 Oscar Johnston Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was presented on February 8 at the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) 2015 annual meeting here. Kimbrell’s son-in-law, Parkdale Mills’ President & CEO Andy Warlick, accepted the award.
The annual award, established in 1997, is named for Oscar Johnston, whose vision, genius and tireless efforts were foremost in the organization of and shaping of the NCC. The award is presented to an individual, now deceased, who served the cotton industry, through the NCC, over a significant period of his or her active business career. The award also recognizes those who exerted a positive influence on the industry and who demonstrated character and integrity as well as perseverance and maturation during that service.
NCC Annual Meeting
Kimbrell, Anderson honored by council
Duke Kimbrell
Kimbrell also provided leadership and strong financial support to the NCC and other cotton organizations. At the NCC, he served continuously from 1984-2006 as either a vice president or board member for the manufacturing segment and he was a board advisor from 2007-2014. He was an active member on numerous NCC standing and special committees, including the Cotton Leadership Development Committee, which selected participants for the Cotton Leadership Program.
The honors and awards Mr. Kimbrell received were numerous and they include: the NCC’s Harry S. Baker Distinguished Service Award in 1998, the Leader of the Year Award in 1991 by Textile World magazine, the American Textile Manufacturer’s Institute’s prestigious Samuel Slater Award, and North Carolina State University College of Textile’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2004, he was named to the American Textile Hall of Fame and he received an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University in 2005.
The Oscar Johnston Lifetime Achievement Award recipient for 2012 was Jack Stone, a California cotton producer, industry leader and former NCC president. Other previous award recipients are: William Garrard, first general manager of Greenwood, Miss.-based Staplcotn Cooperative; Sykes Martin, a Courtland, Ala, producer; Walter Montgomery, Sr., a Spartanburg, S.C., textile manufacturer; William Rhea Blake, a former NCC executive vice president; Roger Malkin, long-time chairman and CEO of Delta and Pine Land Company, Scott, Miss; former NCC presidents, George C. Cortright, Jr., a Rolling Fork, Miss., producer; Jack Hamilton, a Lake Providence, La., producer/ginner/warehouseman; Lon Mann, a Marianna, Ark., ginner; Jack McDonald, Decatur, Ill., cottonseed crusher; Charles Youngker, a Buckeye, Ariz., producer; W.L. “Billy” Carter, Jr., who chaired the American Cotton Producers and served as NCC secretary-treasurer; and former NCC chairman James E. Echols, a Memphis, Tenn., merchant.
Cotton Service Award honors Woody Anderson
Meanwhile, Woody Anderson, a Colorado City, Texas, cotton producer, is the recipient of the 2014 Harry S. Baker Distinguished Service Award.
The award, named for the late California industry leader and past NCC President Harry S. Baker, is presented annually to a deserving individual who has provided extraordinary service, leadership and dedication to the U.S. cotton industry.
Outgoing NCC Chairman Wally Darneille (L) presents a recognition plaque to Andy Warlick and his wife, Pam, who is Duke Kimbrell’s daughter.
Kimbrell, who was the chairman of Parkdale Mills, was ranked as the second most influential textile executive in the 20th century by Textile World magazine. He led Parkdale Mills to becoming the world’s largest spun-yarn manufacturer during the second half of last century.
Starting at the mill as a part-time worker during his teenage years after his U.S. Army Air Corps service in World War II, Mr. Kimbrell rode his bicycle to work and swept floors and did other jobs all over the plant. He became a full-time employee in 1949 following graduation from North Carolina State University. By 1961, he was named Parkdale’s vice president, five years later was named president, and in 1967, became chairman. In the 1960s, Parkdale opened its second plant in Gastonia and by 1992 was operating 18 U.S. yarn spinning plants. Today, Parkdale has 29 manufacturing plants in the United States, Central America, Mexico and South America.
Kimbrell made Parkdale the nation’s first completely air conditioned mill in 1951 and pushed innovation well beyond that – introducing new and more efficient spinning methods.
In presenting the award, outgoing NCC Chairman Wally Darneille said Kimbrell also was known as a man of great integrity, as a man who valued his employees, and as a man who gave back very generously to his community. Through his generous contributions, Kimbrell “helped not only prominent public and private institutions, he also reached out to individuals and local organizations and foundations that help serve the needs of others,” Darneille said. “It was clearly demonstrated over and again that Mr. Kimbrell was a staunch supporter of the community he loved.”
Anderson has been co-owner of Anderson Farms in Colorado City since 1974 – a third generation operation primarily growing cotton, along with wheat, grain and alfalfa. Anderson has a long history of dedicated industry service having served as the NCC’s chairman in 2004, its vice chairman in 2003, as a NCC director in 2002 and as the Southwest Region’s vice chairman of American Cotton Producers from 1996-02. He chaired the NCC’s Crop Insurance Committee from 1995-01.
He has been active in Texas, where is the chairman of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation, a position he has held since ’97. He also was the state committee chairman of the Texas Farm Service Agency from 1997-01.
In presenting the Baker award, NCC Chairman Wally Darneille, a West Texas cooperative marketing executive, said Anderson – during his tenure as NCC chairman – led the organization’s efforts at avoiding damaging amendments to U.S. farm law and protecting the interests of U.S. cotton in international trade agreements.
Among other contributions Anderson made that year were his testimony before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management regarding a mid-term review of the 2002 farm bill; representing U.S. agriculture and the cotton industry as part of a high-level delegation that traveled to Burkina Faso for a ministerial on science and technology and to visit the cotton growing regions of that country; meeting with the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva regarding the framework text for WTO agricultural negotiation; and leading
Woody Anderson (L), a Colorado City, Texas, cotton producer, accepts the 2014 Harry S. Baker Award loving cup from outgoing National Cotton Council Chairman Wally Darneille of Lubbock, Texas.
U.S. cotton industry efforts to shape constructive trade relations with China during meetings with top officials in Beijing and Shanghai – including encouraging the use of cotton standards to facilitate U.S. cotton exports.
Following his service as chairman, Woody has remained active in NCC leadership. He was elected vice chairman of the Committee for the Advancement of Cotton in 2010. He also performed yeoman’s work as the chairman of the NCC’s Farm Policy Task Force, a position he has held since 2005 and where he led efforts for industry consensus on the industry’s priorities with the 2007 and 2014 farm bills.
The recipient of many industry honors, Woody received Cotton Grower magazine’s Cotton Achievement Award in 2007. In 2008, he received the Texas Tech University’s Gerald W. Thomas Award as the Outstanding Agriculturalist for Production. He is a 1974 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Public Relations.
He and his wife, Susan, have two children and three grandchildren.
Previous Harry S. Baker award honorees include cotton producers – Duke Barr, Bruce Brumfield, Lloyd Cline, Robert Coker, Bruce Heiden, Kenneth Hood, Bill Lovelady, Bob McLendon, Frank Mitchener, Jimmy Sanford, Jack Stone and Charlie Youngker; ginners – Lon Mann and Charlie Owen; merchants – William B. Dunavant, Jr., and Bill Lawson; cooperative official – Woods Eastland; textile manufacturer – Duke Kimbrell; association executives – Gaylon Booker, Neal Gillen, Albert Russell, Earl Sears and B.F. Smith; Congressional members – Senators Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Representatives Larry Combest and Charles Stenholm; and USDA official – Charlie Cunningham.
Source: National Cotton Council