When Abit Massey talked to you, you felt you were the only person in the room because he remembered and easily recalled the important details of your life. He would ask about your partner, your family, your mother, even your dog.
“When you were with him, he paid attention to you in a way that made you feel like you were basking in the sunshine,” said Wendy Kavanagh, president of the Georgia Society of Association Executives. “He radiated the way you want to treat people.”
His smooth personal style served him well. He worked in state government jobs in the 1950s before joining the Georgia Poultry Federation in 1960. He spent nearly half a century there, rising to chairman and becoming a longtime figure at the Capitol as he lobbied legislators while the industry grew into a multibillion-dollar business.
Massey, 96, died June 14 of complications from cancer in Gainesville.
The fifth of six children born to Dyar Ed and Lydia Nix Massey, Abit grew up and finished high school in Athens, where his parents owned and operated a restaurant. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a business degree in 1949, and he became the executive secretary to then-Georgia Attorney General Eugene Cook. After working for other state officials, Massey earned a law degree from Emory University in 1955. In 1959, Gov. Ernest Vandiver appointed him to direct the Georgia Office of Commerce.
He worked on economic development, set up a department of tourism and opened the first visitors center in Sylvania on U.S. Highway 301, then a major thoroughfare to Florida. The next year, Massey was offered the directorship of the Georgia Poultry Federation. His fiancee, Kayanne Shoffner, who was Miss Georgia, reminded him that he “didn’t know a chicken from a duck,” but he accepted the position anyway. The couple moved to Gainesville, and Massey served the organization for 48 years.
Tall, elegantly dressed, with a flowing head of hair — that has its own Twitter, now known as X, account — Massey became a familiar and beloved figure in the Capitol, lobbying for the interests of poultry farmers, suppliers and businesses.
“He was involved in landmark legislation that benefited the poultry and agriculture in general in Georgia,” from tax breaks to better regulations and export levies, says Mike Giles, who became the federation’s director in 2009.
Massey at times found himself at odds with others, such as environmental groups concerned about waste runoff from chicken houses and water pollution, but he maintained a professional attitude through the battles.
Years before, as a legislative assistant with U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, Giles had worked with Massey in creating policy affecting the poultry industry and agriculture. “I never saw Abit upset or angry. He would just be very focused on the task at hand.”
He also served professional and UGA-related organizations.
Massey “was a proud Dawg to the core,” says Missy Brandt Wilson, director of sales for UGA’s Georgia Center. She met him at the Georgia Society of Association Executives (GSAE), an organization he championed. He served as president of GSAE and the American Society of Association Executives.
“Abit gave his speeches without any notes,” says Wilson, “and he was always brilliant and genuine. He could introduce a crowd of 100 people by name. And he believed in giving back to the university.”
Massey served as president of the UGA Alumni Association, a trustee of the UGA Foundation and an Executive Committee member of the UGA Research Foundation, as well as in other positions. Among his many honors and awards are the UGA President’s Medal and induction into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame and the American Poultry Historical Society Hall of Fame.
Nick Place, dean of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, called Massey an icon, an honorable man and leader.
“We are ever grateful for Abit’s advocacy for the broader UGA community, and especially for his dedication to our poultry science department’s students, faculty, as well as research and Extension programs,” said Todd Applegate, Department Head and R. Harold and Patsy Harrison Chair in Poultry Science. “He had a seamless knack for building community with individuals from varied organizations, ultimately strengthening us all.”
Massey also helped create Georgia Tech’s Agricultural Technology Research Program to expand poultry research. His efforts resulted in his receiving a Presidential Citation for Distinguished Service from Georgia Tech — the only UGA graduate to do so.
In addition to his wife Kayanne Massey, Abit Massey is survived by their son Lewis Massey and daughter Camille Massey, and four grandchildren. The family is having a private burial. A memorial service will be scheduled in the future.
An earlier version of this story misstated Abit Massey’s birth order.
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