Abit and Kayanne Massey
“Abit Massey was the very best Governor that Georgia never had,” said close friend and longtime Gainesville, Georgia neighbor, former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal.
And Abit Massey also was for decades a key leader for so many organizations, the people he mentored and so much more. Always kind, always encouraging, always smiling … and as he recently left us at age 96, still with a youthful headful of dark, wavy hair. Abit Massey was the epitome of a southern gentleman.
Fresh out of Emory University with a law degree in 1959, Governor Ernest Vandiver hired Massey to run the Georgia Office of Commerce, yes, it was Abit Massey who helped launch Georgia into the job creation business. Abit established the department of tourism and opened Georgia’s first Visitor’s Center. In less than a year, he was being wooed away from state government and was hired by the Georgia Poultry Federation, his young fiancée, then Kayanne Shoffer, a recent Miss Georgia, teased Massey about his lack of knowledge of farming and the chicken business.
Hard to believe from those humble beginnings, but poultry is now Georgia’s No. 1 export and cash crop. The Peach State may be better known for that fruit, peanuts and even cotton … but in every corner of the world, most every day, Georgia eggs, chicken wings and breasts are being consumed. The move to the federation also brought Abit and soon Kayanne Massey to Gainesville which remains the center of Georgia’s poultry industry, and which they have since called home.
Massey served the federation incredibly well, under Georgia’s Gold Dome and elsewhere for 48 years, retiring in 2009, while still sharp as a tack at 81. Anyone in D.C. taking notes?
Chicken is now America’s top dining protein choice, and Georgia is the top poultry producer in the nation. When run off from chicken farms became an environmental concern, Massey and his federation helped create markets for chicken manure. Atlanta and Georgia’s second largest industry after agri-business and farming is tourism. And one of the largest conventions in the food business in the world, the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE), with nearly 1,500 exhibitors annually brings nearly 100,000 visitors into our capital city. Though the less enlightened often refer to the IPPE as, The Chicken Pluckers, the bucks they spend from the clucks they hatch and grow rival the economic impact of a college bowl game weekend like the Peach Bowl.
And perhaps second only to his family, Abit Massey loved the University of Georgia, serving as President of the UGA Alumni Association, trustee of the UGA Foundation and as an Executive Committee member of the UGA Research Foundation. At home in Gainesville, he was also a trustee of Brenau University and an inductee into both the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame and the American Poultry Historical Society.
Abit Massey’s life by every measure was incredibly well-lived. By now, I imagine that Abit has found a nice porch seat up there, and while smiling and making new friends, he is preparing a comfortable spot for when Kayanne joins him. Thank you, sir, for giving UGA, your community, your family and our state your all. And for the many whose lives Abit Massey touched or made better … I have just three more words, Be Like Abit.
Photo: provided by Bill Crane
