To George Kitchens, TVPPA’s Richard C. Crawford Distinguished Service Award was “a very significant [honor] that other people got.”
Until it wasn’t.
Kitchens, the chief executive at Joe Wheeler EMC, Trinity, AL, was presented the 2017 Crawford DSA at TVPPA’s 71st Annual Conference, conducted May 22-24 at Savannah, GA. The former TVPPA chairman was introduced by one of his predecessors in that office, Greeneville, TN, L & P’s Bill Carroll.
“This is just something I just never thought about,” said Kitchens, the chief executive at Joe Wheeler EMC, Trinity, AL, since 2001. “I never had any inkling that I might be considered for something like this. I’m still amazed I was selected.
“I got a little time to go back and look at the people who’ve won this award, and there are some giants in our industry on that list. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of them, and I have high regard for them. I’m honored and proud to be in their company,” Kitchens said.
Kitchens served as TVPPA chairman from mid-2009 to mid-2011. He left the board of directors, but had a long run as chairman of TVPPA’s first Regulatory Committee. At the just-concluded Annual Conference, he rejoined the TVPPA Board of Directors as the representative for Alabama District cooperatives.
Kitchens grew up near Caledonia, MS, and earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University in 1975. He worked in the oil and gas industry until 1999, when he joined a utility in Fairbanks, AK.
Read more about Kitchens and the 71st Annual Conference in the May/June 2017 issue of TVPPA News magazine.