Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 8812 • Between Turnrows Mark and Carl knew that, although Kelly was still a very young man, he was well equipped to assume the day-to-day leadership of this new regional seed company. Kelly was well aware that there would be many challenges associated with making the transition from a seed company dependent upon public institutions (universities) for genetics to the inclusion of making new and very specific, and sometimes rather long-binding, agreements with the various national and international genetic suppli- ers. Although all regional seed companies faced these new transitional challenges, his longtime friendly competitor, Noal Lawhon of then Delta King Seeds was a very helpful mentor. As Kelly, Mark and Carl begin to put the pieces of Armor Seed together trying to ensure its economic survival, they envisioned many changes that would have to be implemented. I am not aware of all of those changes, but what I have observed include the following: 1. Armor Seed had to become a regional seed company. (Currently Armor Seed has a presence in AR, LA, KY, MO, MS, and TN as well as several other states.) 2. Armor Seed had to continue placing great importance upon its retail customers and seed producers. 3. Armor Seed had to establish a brand and, as a company, it should value and respect the brand. 4. Armor Seed had to hire quality people in all phases of the com- pany and value them just as they valued each and every customer. 5. Armor Seed had to commit that all seed sold bearing the Armor brand was a quality product. 6. Armor Seed had to embrace new technologies that were beneficial both to the customer and environment. Retirement party for long-time employee, Clarence Johnson, in June, 2006.