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Columns::April 7, 2003
Telling tales: Peabodys announced for 62nd year
Three faculty receive university’s Creative Research Awards
State’s business schools sweep GM competition
Five undergraduates receive mid-term Foundation Fellowships
Formula for success
Choosing a career was ‘elementary’ decision for education professor
Administrative Changes
Kudos
Enhancing Quality Teaching
Training Day
Campus News
Richard Russell Foundation funds new professorship in agriculture
By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
Though perhaps best known for his expertise in military and defense matters and budgetary issues, Georgia’s late U.S. Sen. Richard B. Russell had an abiding interest in agriculture and was instrumental in passing laws to benefit the nation’s farmers.
The Richard B. Russell Foundation in Atlanta and UGA are commemorating Russell’s support for agriculture by creating a professorship in his name in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Russell Foundation has given UGA $250,000 to establish the professorship, which will be filled by a nationally known scholar who specializes in an area of agriculture. The scholar will be chosen at a later date.
Russell, who graduated from UGA’s law school in 1918, served in the senate from 1933 until his death in 1971 and was one of that body’s most powerful and respected members. He grew up on his family’s farm in Barrow County and was a strong advocate for agriculture throughout his time in Washington.
He was a leader in passage of New Deal laws that established the Farmers Home Administration and the Rural Electrification Act, which helped bring electricity to farms. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee for his entire 38-year career, he helped fund research on improving agricultural production and conservation and was instrumental in locating several research facilities at UGA.
“Sen. Russell had a life-long interest in agriculture and was very active in formulating national agricultural policy,” says Charles E. Campbell, chairman of the Russell Foundation. “We want people to remember that, and this professorship will help keep alive this important legacy.”
Gale Buchanan, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, says the professorship will help strengthen the college’s national stature in agricultural research and education.
“This professorship isn’t restricted to a specific area of agriculture, so we have the flexibility to fill it with a person who both meets the college’s academic needs and will also provide leadership in new and exciting fields of agricultural research, extension and instruction,” says Buchanan. “Our college is honored to help sustain the memory and contributions of a great Georgian and a great American.”
Russell began his political career in 1920 by winning election to the Georgia House of Representatives where he served 10 years, including four as speaker. He was elected governor in 1930 but stepped down two years later to run for the senate. In his 50-year political career, he never lost an election.
In the senate, he wrote the law that created the National School Lunch Program, which provides hot meals to school children. An adviser to six presidents and himself a candidate for president in 1952, he was President Pro Tem of the senate, making him third in line of presidential succession.
He served 16 years as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, earning a reputation as one of the nation’s foremost experts on military and defense policy. He was also chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and was the ranking Democrat on the Aeronautical and Space Science Committee and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.
Russell was instrumental in locating or maintaining 15 major armed forces bases and more than 25 research facilities in Georgia, including the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and the Russell Research Center in Athens.
The Russell Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Russell’s memory, has centered much of its activity at UGA. In addition to the new Russell professorship, the foundation funds the Richard B. Russell Chair in History, currently held by Edward Larson.
The foundation was instrumental in establishing the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at UGA, and has made a $3 million pledge toward a new special collections library to be built at the university.
The foundation also funds the Russell Teaching Awards, presented each year to three outstanding young faculty members who teach undergraduates.
In addition, the foundation supports Leadership UGA, which trains students in leadership skills, and funds four debate scholarships for students. The foundation also sponsors the biennial Russell Symposium at UGA to examine issues of national security.
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