Life of Talladega Extension Agent Commemorated at Statewide 4-H Event

	Auburn, June 13, 2002 --- The lives of Wayne Ford and Ronny Williams were 
intertwined in so many ways. 
	Growing up in Clay County, they attended rival high schools in Lineville and Ashland.  
Later, they ended up at Auburn University pursuing almost identical paths that would later lead to 
careers as Cooperative Extension agents – Ford as a Tuscaloosa County Extension agent, 
Williams as an agent in Talladega County.
	Throughout their careers, both maintained a passionate and enduring commitment to 4-H 
youth environmental education, even sharing the unique distinction of coaching national forestry 
judging championship teams. 
	 Only hours after Williams’ unexpected passing on April 20, Ford and other Extension 
agents throughout Alabama resolved to do something to honor the legacy of their friend and 
coworker.  
	“We got together and quickly decided we wanted to do something for Ronny – something 
special and permanent,” Ford recalls.  
He and other agents decided to proclaim the first day of the 2002 Alabama 4-H Forestry 
Judging Contest as “Ronny Williams Day” to commemorate Williams’ devoted service to 4-H 
youth education in his county and state.  
	“Ronny made such a positive impact on so many children,” Ford recalled during the 
memorial service held in Williams’ honor.  “I think our goal, as Extension agents, should be to re-
dedicate ourselves to doing as much as Ronny did for people.  He was such a positive influence 
on Extension and all young people involved in 4-H programs.”
The event, held June 10 at the Alabama 4-H Youth Development Center in Columbiana, 
was followed by a tree planting, carried out with the assistance of Williams’ two sons, Jimmy and 
Patrick, both members of their father’s national championship forestry judging team in 2001.
	“We thought the only logical thing to do was to plant a tree at the 4-H Center,” says Lee 
County Extension Agent Chuck Browne, another one of Williams’ coworkers. “It’s a place where 
Ronny spent so much time training so many young people.”
	Agents selected a white oak tree to plant in Williams’ memory, Browne says, “because it 
is one of the longest living trees in the forest and has been documented to live as long as 400 
years.”
	“The tree is also the dominant mass-producing tree in the Eastern United States – often 
called the king of the oaks -- a long-lived and very strong tree and one that we thought 
appropriate for honoring Ronny’s memory,” he adds.
	The site on which the tree was planted is also significant, Brown says, because it was the 
area where agents met and decided to establish a 4-H forestry judging program in Alabama.
	“It was one of the programs in which Ronny was so involved and taught so many young 
people about forestry,” he says.
	Following the planting, participants were invited to join in singing “Amazing Grace.” 
	The service was closed with a scripture reading by Ford from Psalms 1: “And he shall be 
like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf shall not 
wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
	In addition to sons Jimmy and Patrick, Williams is survived by his wife, Janice, a 
daughter, Sandy, and one grandson, Parker.
(Sources: Wayne Ford, Tuscaloosa County Extension Agent, 205-349-3886, and Chuck 
Browne, Lee County Extension Agent, 334-749-3353)