Tommy Irvin, Longtime Georgia Agriculture Chief, Dies At 88

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September 15th, 2017

Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin works at his desk in Atlanta Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009. Georgia’s top agriculture official is urging federal prosecutors to criminally investigate a peanut processing plant linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration said this week that the Peanut Corp. of America plant in southwest Georgia … Continued

John Bazemore / associated press file

Former Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin, whose four decades in office made him one of the longest-serving statewide officials in the U.S., died at the age of 88, the department he once ran confirmed Friday.

First appointed as state agriculture head in 1969 by then-Gov. Lester Maddox, Irvin went on to win 10 consecutive elections before deciding to retire in 2011 because of age and health reasons.

“Commissioner Irvin loved serving Georgia’s farmers and consumers for over three generations. He touched us all with his unsurpassed spirit of stewardship, commitment and work ethic,” Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, a Republican who succeeded the Democratic Irvin, said in a statement Friday. “Beyond agriculture, his commitment to education put a strong and admirable exclamation point on his life’s work.”

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