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Peanuts and good storytelling must be, at least in part, keys to a long, fruitful life. If you doubt this, take a look at Frank McGill. “Sherman said, ‘I’m going to sprinkle this guy and let him go to hell,’” said McGill, landing the punchline for the story he told in his unpretentious manner at the 2016 Georgia Peanut Tour Hot Topics session in Tifton, Ga., Sept. 13.
J. Frank McGill was chosen as this year’s Valor Award winner, sponsored by Valent. Known as “Mr. Peanut,” Dr. McGill served as president of the American Peanut Research and Education Society; chairman of the University of Georgia Agronomists, the U.S. Task Force on Peanut Policy and the U.S. Peanut Improvement Working Group.
“To work with a nut, you’ve got to be a nut,” he said. “I’ve just had a wonderful career. I’ve had a lot of fun with it too.” McGill was an agronomist and peanut specialist stationed at the UGA Coastal Plain Experiment Station. While there, he helped develop a multi-discipline “package approach” for peanut production in Georgia increasing the state’s peanut yield by more than 2,000 pounds per acre in less than 20 years.
He began his career with UGA as a county extension agent in southwest Georgia and later became the state’s extension peanut specialist. McGill worked at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station — now known as the UGA Tifton campus — and helped develop a “package approach” for peanut production, which includes management of land preparation, environmental control, variety selection, and harvesting.
Over his career, McGill traveled to 21 countries as a peanut consultant. He also served as a technical advisor to the Georgia Peanut Commission, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, National Peanut Council and the National Peanut Growers Group.
His innovations revamped struggling farms and helped the state’s peanut productivity to explode by more than 2,000 pounds per acre in less than two decades. He shaped federal farm legislation, worked with 21 countries on five continents to establish peanut research and education programs, and he helped developing countries grow peanuts to fight famine and disease, all while investing in people he met along the way.
CAES named McGill a D.W. Brooks Distinguished Professor of Agronomy in 1979 and Progressive Farmer magazine named him Man of the Year. He received the college’s Medallion of Honor in 2019. In October 2018, he was honored by the UGA Graduate School as an Alumnus of Distinction.
Scott Monfort, UGA Extension peanut agronomist says, “Mr. Frank set the bar very high in supporting the needs of the peanut growers in Georgia as ‘the first peanut specialist’. His level of enthusiasm and dedication to supporting the peanut growers in Georgia is something I continue to strive for each day.”
In total, I have seven letters Mr. Frank sent to me over the years. They are kept in a special place in my office. No awards match the honor, pride and, yes, great entertainment the letters still provide.