Hood Selected for Sullivan Award
Joe Hood with Interim AU President Ed Richardson
For the past 57 years, Joe Hood has been teaching, advising and mentoring generations of CoAg students and faculty. This spring his dedication and hard work were recognized campus-wide when he received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, a prestigious award that honors such qualities as excellence in character, service to humanity and scholarship.
Hood, professor emeritus in the Department of Agronomy and Soils, was presented the 2006 award recently along with Corey Edwards, a senior in business administration, and Angela Homan, a senior in exercise science.
Although formally retired since 1986, Hood taught agronomy and soils classes until 2000, and he continues to volunteer his time and services as an adviser and mentor to CoAg faculty and students.
He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia, a master's from Purdue University and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in soil fertility. During his tenure at Auburn, Hood served as department head for the Department of Agronomy and Soils and as acting assistant dean for the College of Agriculture. He was also chair of the University Senate.
Hood was named a fellow in the American Society of Agronomy in 1984 and through the years has received numerous awards for his outstanding teaching. In addition, he also has been involved in many community projects including the Lee County MERCY program, an outreach initiative through the Auburn United Methodist Church that assists people who are facing financial crises, such as mortgage foreclosure or the inability to pay utility bills.
The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards were established in 1925 by the New York Southern Society in memory of Sullivan, a 19th century southerner and prominent New York lawyer, businessman and philanthropist. Auburn is one of several southern universities that present the awards each year to at least one AU student and one non-student, usually either a current or retired faculty or staff member or an alumnus. Bill Alverson, assistant CoAg Dean, also won the award in 2004.