Cotton leader Jack S. Hamilton dies
Dec 28, 2001 12:00 PM
JACK S. HAMILTON, a Lake Providence, La., cotton producer and ginner and former president and treasurer of the Memphis-based National Cotton Council of America, died Dec. 16 in Jackson, Miss., following a short illness.
Hamilton, who had raised cotton and other crops since 1955, was recognized as an innovative farmer and ginner. He was serving as treasurer of Hollybrook Land Company, secretary-treasurer of Hollybrook Gin Company and president of Hollybrook Warehouse Company.
Hamilton was the National Cotton Council's president in 1998. He had served as president of The Cotton Foundation from 1995 to 1997.
“Jack Hamilton was a forceful leader within the National Cotton Council,” said Gaylon Booker, the Council's president and chief executive officer. “He not only was an innovator in the experimentation with and use of new farming and processing technology, he advocated improvements for cotton processing systems, including bale packaging, and for improvements in the cotton classing system.”
Hamilton served on many of the Council's technical committees and as chair of the Joint Cotton Industry Bale Packaging Committee. He was a former director of the Council's export promotions arm, Cotton Council International (CCI), and led a CCI delegation to Japan and China to address bale packaging problems being experienced by those valuable customers of U.S. raw cotton.
Hamilton was chairman of Cotton Incorporated from 1988 to 1990. He also was an organizer and first president of the Louisiana Cotton Producers Association.
A native of Mississippi, Hamilton graduated from Cleveland (Miss.) High School. He was a graduate of Louisiana State University and served with the Marine Corps in the Korean War as an infantry platoon commander.
He is survived by his wife, Arabelle; daughter, Lee Trichel of Shreveport, La.; son, Jack S. Hamilton Jr. of Tampa, Fla.; and four grandchildren.
