[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 19, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S12850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                A THANK YOU TO WILLIAM ANDREW WHISENHUNT

 Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, one of the highest compliments 
a person can receive is to be called a ``servant,'' someone who gives 
of himself for others. A man I've known for many years, a man of 
outstanding reputation, a man who has given a large part of his life in 
service to his neighbors, a man respected by his peers, is about to 
make a major change in his life. The people of the Fair State of 
Arkansas would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that change.
  Andrew Whisenhunt of Bradley, in Lafayette County in southwest 
Arkansas, was born in the town of Hallsville, TX. However, his family 
moved to the Natural State while Andrew was still a baby. So, 
technically he is not a native. However, Andrew is an Arkansas through 
and through.
  He has long been in the public eye. Yet, soon, Andrew will step down 
from the presidency of Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation after 13 years. 
A modern-day tiller of the soil, he has been a farmer for as long as he 
can remember--and his father before him. With loving support form his 
wife, Polly, and with help from his five children--Warren, Terri, Tim, 
Julie, and Bryan--Andrew has built the farm where he's lived almost all 
his life into what has been called a model of modern agriculture. And 
testimony to that has been the Whisenhunts' selection as ``Arkansas 
Farm Family of the Year'' in 1970, and Andrew's choice as ``Progressive 
Farmer Magazine's Man of the Year in Arkansas Agriculture'' in 1984.
  His love for his chosen profession has carried him far beyond the 
fence rows of his 2,000-acre cotton, rice, soybean, and wheat-and-feed 
grain operation. The journey began when he joined Lafayette County Farm 
Bureau in 1955. By the time Andrew was elected to the Board of 
Directors of Arkansas Farm Bureau in 1968, he had served in almost 
every office in his county organization, including president. In his 
early years on the Farm Bureau State board, he worked on several key 
board panels, including the Executive and Building committees. (The 
latter's work resulted in construction of Farm Bureau Center in Little 
Rock in 1978.)
  His fellow board members thought enough of his personal industry and 
leadership abilities that they elected him their secretary-treasurer in 
1976, an office he filled for 10 years. During that time, Andrew also 
was active outside the Farm Bureau arena as, among other things, a 
charter member of Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board, and as a former 
president of both the American Soybean Development Foundation and the 
Arkansas Association of Soil Conservation Districts. Then he was 
elected president of Arkansas Farm Bureau in 1986.
  During his tenure, the organization has enjoyed unprecedented growth 
in membership, influence and prestige. When Andrew accepted the mantle 
of top leadership, Farm Bureau represented some 121,000 farm and rural 
families in the State. Today, that figure stands at almost 215,000--and 
Arkansas has become the 8th largest Farm Bureau of the 50 States and 
Puerto Rico.
  As Arkansas Farm Bureau has grown, Andrew's leadership has done 
likewise. As an influential member of American Farm Bureau Federation's 
Executive Committee, he has traveled far and wide as an advocate not 
just for Arkansas farmers, but to advance American interests in 
international trade and relations. He was a member of the Farm Bureau 
delegation that visited Russia after the Iron Curtain shredded, to 
experience that nation's agriculture firsthand and to offer help to 
farmers there. Andrew also was a key player in delegations to China, 
Japan, and the Far East, and to South America. He was among U.S. farm 
leaders who traveled to Cuba recently to see how trade with that nation 
might be re-established. He even led a group of Arkansas farm leaders 
first to pre-NAFTA Mexico; then to deliver rice the Farm Bureau had 
donated to a Central American village devastated by Hurricane Mitch.
  Andrew's influence and tireless work ethic embrace the nonfarm sector 
as well. His service to his local community includes county and city 
school boards, his local hospital board, the Bradley Chamber of 
Commerce and his church. He also is a board member of Florida College 
in Tampa.
  When Andrew steps down as president of Arkansas Farm Bureau 
Federation in December, the members of that great organization will 
miss him greatly. But he has never been one to sit still, and chances 
are, that won't change. As the new century unfolds, Farm Bureau's loss 
undoubtedly will be a gain somewhere else for all Arkansans.

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