[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 159 (Thursday, November 11, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2348-E2349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM ANDREW WHISENHUNT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JAY DICKEY

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 10, 1999

  Mr. DICKEY. Mr. Speaker, one of the highest compliments a person can 
receive is to be called a ``servant,'' someone who gives of himself for 
others. A man that I have 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 they did not acknowledge that change.
  Andrew Whisenhunt of Bradley, in Lafayette County in Southwest 
Arkansas, was born in the town of Hallsville, Texas. His family, 
however, moved to the Natural State while Andrew was still a baby. 
Though technically this means that he is not a native, Andrew is 
Arkansas through and through.
  He has long been in the public eye, and soon Andrew will step down 
from the presidency of the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation after 
thirteen years. A modern-day tiller of the soil, he has been a farmer 
for as long as he can remember, as was his father before him. With 
loving support from his wife Polly, and with help from his five 
children--Warren, Terri, Tim, Julie, and Bryan--Andrew has built the 
farm where he has lived almost all his life into what has been called a 
model of modern agriculture. It is a testimony to his abilities that 
his family was selected Farm Family of the Year and that he personally 
was chosen as the ``Progressive Farmer Magazine's Man of the Year in 
Arkansas Agriculture.''
  His love for his chosen profession has carried him far beyond the 
fencerows of this 2,000-acre cotton, rice, soybean, and wheat-and-grain 
operation. The journey began when he joined the Lafayette County Farm 
Bureau in 1955. By the time Andrew was elected to the Board of 
Directors of the 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 panel's work resulted in the 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 held for ten years. During that time, Andrew was 
also active outside of the Farm Bureau arena as, among other things, a 
charter member of the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board, and as former 
president of both the American Soybean Development Foundation and the 
Arkansas Association of Soil Conservation Districts. In 1986, he was 
elected as president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau.
  During his tenure, the organization has enjoyed unprecedented growth 
in membership, influence, and prestige. When Andrew accepted the mantle 
of top leadership, the Farm Bureau represented some 121 farm and rural 
families in the state. Today, that figure stands at almost 215,000, the 
eighth largest Farm Bureau of the fifty states and Puerto Rico.

[[Page E2349]]

  As the Arkansas Farm Bureau has grown, Andrew's leadership has done 
likewise. As an influential member of the American Farm Bureau 
Executive Committee, he has traveled far and wide as an advocate, not 
just for Arkansas farmers, but for American farm interests in 
international trade and foreign relations. He was a member of the Farm 
Bureau delegation that visited Russia after the fall of the Iron 
Curtain to offer assistance to farmers and to experience that nation's 
agriculture. Andrew was also a key player in delegations to China, 
Japan, and South America. He led a group of Arkansas farm leaders on a 
visit to pre-NAFTA Mexico, and to deliver rice the Farm Bureau had 
donated to a Central American village devastated by Hurricane Mitch. 
Most recently, he was among U.S. farm leaders who traveled to Cuba to 
see how trade with that nation might be re-established.
  But Andrew's influence and tireless work ethic embrace the non-farm 
sector as well. His service to his local community includes county and 
city school boards, the local hospital board, the Board of Florida 
College in Tampa, Florida, the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce, and 
his church.
  When Andrew steps down as the president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau 
Federation in December, the members of that great organization will 
miss him greatly. He has never been one to sit still, however, and 
chances are that will never change. Unlike the `Old Soldier' General 
Douglas MacArthur spoke of so many decades ago, Andrew Whisenhunt will 
certainly not ``fade away.'' As the new century unfolds, the Farm 
Bureau's loss will undoubtedly be a gain somewhere else for all 
Arkansans.

                          ____________________