John Wesley Langdale, III, will be the featured speaker on Aug. 14 at the annual freshman convocation at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. The 3:30 p.m. ceremony in Gressette Gym will conclude the Welcome Week activities at ABAC.

Now serving as the president of The Langdale Company, Langdale studied forestry at ABAC beginning in 1989.  He continued his education at the University of Georgia where he earned his bachelor’s degree in speech communication.

Langdale is a part of the fourth generation of family leadership for The Langdale Company that began in 1894. The Langdale Company has developed into a highly diversified business that includes forestry, forest products and other affiliate companies that extend to the automotive, banking, hospitality and land development industries.

In its first 50 years, The Langdale Company established economic opportunities for the communities in which it worked through the naval stores business. In the last 50 years, the company has progressed into manufacturing and beyond.

The Langdale Company’s evolution has followed a consistent path to make the most of limited natural and human resources through innovation. Each year since the 1930s, the company has planted more trees than it has harvested, and it is now on the verge of planting its one hundred millionth seedling. That commitment to environmental stewardship provides wildlife habitat, clean air and water.

Langdale serves as Chairman of the Board of the Georgia Forestry Commission.  He is also a board member of the Georgia Forestry Association and the Georgia Conservancy and serves as a Steering Committee Member for the Greater Okefenokee Association of Landowners. Langdale has been a member of the ABAC Foundation Board of Trustees since 201.

Langdale was honored as the 2014 Forest Landowner of the Year by the Forest Landowners Association (FLA) during its national conference in Virginia Beach, Va.  Langdale and his wife, Kim, have two children, Caroline and John Wesley, IV.

Classes begin for the 2014 fall term at ABAC on Aug. 13.