The Memphis-based National Cotton Ginners Association (NCGA) elected its 2016 officers on February 5 during its annual meeting in Dallas, Texas.
The new slate is: president – Ron Craft, Plains, Texas; first vice president – David Blakemore, Campbell, Mo.; second vice president – Stanley Creelman, Tulare, Calif.; third vice chairman – Wes Morgan, New London, N.C.; and chairman – Levin Lynch, Bennettsville, South Carolina. Harrison Ashley of Cordova, Tenn., serves as NCGA’s executive vice president.
Craft, who moves up from NCGA first vice president, is manager of the New Tex Gin Company in Plains. He has served on and chaired numerous NCGA committees and currently chairs its Legislative Committee and its Air Quality Subcommittee. A graduate of the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) Cotton Leadership Program, Craft served as a NCC director in 2015. He also has served on multiple NCC committees, including current membership on the NCC’s Farm Program and Economic Policy and Cotton Flow committees and on its Quality Task Force.
Also announced at NCGA’s annual meeting was that Louis Colombini, manager of the Westside Farmers Coop Gins in Fresno, Calif., and an active ginner leader in that state, is the NCGA’s 2015 Horace Hayden National Cotton Ginner of the Year.
In addition, Barry Nevius who has served as a safety and loss control specialist for the Southeastern Cotton Ginners Association and headed up its safety-related activities since 1998, was named the recipient of NCGA’s 2015-2016 Charles C. Owen Distinguished Service Award.