Irwin will be speaking at the Polk County Democratic Party meeting at Moore’s Soda Fountain on April 15 at 9 a.m.
A native of Georgia, Irvin was elected to his first public office as a member of the Habersham County Board of Education in 1956.
Later, he served as chairman of his school board and President of the Georgia School Boards Association.
Because of his many years of hard work and dedication to improving education, he was given an honorary lifetime membership in the Parent-Teacher Association of Georgia and the Georgia School Food Service Association.
Elected to four terms in the Georgia General Assembly as a Representative from Habersham County, he served on the House Agriculture, Education, and Appropriations Committees and chaired the House Industrial Relations Committee and the Governor’s Conference on Education. He was the governor’s floor leader and later served as executive secretary to the governor.
Having served as Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture since 1969, he is the Dean of Georgia’s Constitutional officers and is recognized as one of the state’s most able leaders.
He is chair of the Georgia Development Authority and the Georgia Seed Development Commission, a member of the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission, the Georgia Water Council, the Georgia Rural Development Council, vice-chair of the Georgia State Employee Benefits Plan Council, and an ex-officio member of eleven Georgia Agricultural Commodity Commissions.
His activities and leadership in agriculture extend into many areas of service on the national level, as well as on the local, regional, and state levels. He is the only Georgian to serve as president of his professional organization, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).
He also is a twice past president of the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture (SASDA), as well as a founder and twice president of the Southern United States Trade Association (SUSTA), an organization which promotes the export of southern food and agricultural products.
Commissioner Irvin is a Thirty-Third Degree Scottish Rite Mason and served as Grand Master of Masons in Georgia. Irvin is also a Shriner, a member of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity, an honorary member of Alpha Zeta Honor Fraternity, a member of the Gridiron and AGHON Societies of the University of Georgia, former Chair, and member of the Board of Trustees of Truett-McConnell College, and currently a trustee of Piedmont College.
Commissioner Irvin and his wife, Bernice, are the parents of five children and have 14 grandchildren along with one great-grandchild. They live on a farm in the Glade Creek Community of Habersham County where he has served as a deacon in the Antioch Baptist Church.
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