"Abit Massey was the very best Governor that Georgia never had," said close friend and longtime Gainesville, Georgia neighbor, former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal.
The first time I met Abit Massey, I was still inside my mother. Abit was a young man, newly employed by the Georgia Poultry Federation making his name during the Georgia General Assembly. A close friend of my grandparents, Bud and Mary Crane, Bud had given Abit a key to the basement apartment of their home in Decatur, which Abit had unrestricted use of when the legislature was in session, a short drive down Decatur Street from the Capitol.
Jerry Crane and his young bride Lynn had only recently moved into that same apartment to start their family. Neither Abit nor Jerry was aware that Abit had a key...Finding Abit asleep on the couch in the entryway one morning was a memorable introduction to a man who would overtime be given a key to almost every city in the state.
And Abit Massey also was the key 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 Georgia's #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, Georgia, 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.
Lewis Massey, Abit and Kayanne Massey's son, also has 'the gift,' and ability to build relationships which appear effortless. Lewis also has the same classic jaw, firm handshake and ready smile of his father. Lewis was a solid Georgia Secretary of State, who later made a promising run for Governor, and then chose to follow in his father's footsteps and is today regarded as one of the most effective public affairs consultants in the southeast.
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 later. 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.
