President's Report - Gordon State College

5
President’s Report
Then Congressman Max Burns with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
during a visit to Israel.
President George W. Bush, Congressman Charlie Norwood and
Max Burns.
During this time with Oxford, he earned his master’s in business
information systems at Georgia State University in 1977, and
his son Andrew was born.
Years passed and his second son, Nathan, was born, and Burns
earned his Ph.D. in business from Georgia State University.
He still remembers his interview with Georgia Southern University’s
dean of business, Origen J. James Jr.
“He asked me if I was brilliant,” Burns said. “I laughed and
said no, but I was a hard worker.” Apparently this was a good
answer, because Burns was hired.
At this time, 1983, Georgia Southern was about the size of
Gordon State College today, about 5,000 students, and it was undergoing
a tremendous growth period. It was a great time to learn
how to live through and guide such growth, he said, but it’s hard
to manage if it comes too fast.
When he joined Georgia Southern, he moved his family to
his Sylvania farm, which was in reasonable commuting distance
to the university. A bit of culture shock was involved in the move,
since they were moving from the Alpharetta area north of Atlanta
to the very rural southeast of Georgia, but in time, the farm became
home in the deepest meaning of the word.
Asked what crops he grows, Burns chuckled and said pine
trees. Behind the chuckle is the memory of some of the money he
has lost in trying to farm, and some of the hard lessons of farming,
as in the time he went to see Willard Roundtree for advice about
planting oats.
Roundtree, a long-time friend of his father’s, had a lifetime’s
experience as a farmer and he knew his stuff. “Boy,” he said, “you
plant oats during the full moon of October.”
But it was too late in the year for him to plant in October, so
Burns asked if there was another time.
A second time, Roundtree repeated his words.
“You plant oats during the full moon of October.”
Burns realized Roundtree’s second round of advice came with
some additional meaning. He was being told that if he didn’t have
the time to be a farmer, he shouldn’t be one.
“This is good advice in any vocation,” Burns said.
So what then does he grow on his 225 acres
Pine trees, grass and about 35 beef cattle, he said.
He likes that his two sons were young when they moved to
Sylvania and were able to grow up on a farm, although not quite
the working farm of their grandfather’s. In contrast, Burns had
farming chores that were tough enough and critical enough to
teach him a disciplined work ethic that has sustained him throughout
his life.
“By the time I was 6 or 7, I was picking cotton and
feeding livestock.” Between pigs and cows, Burns said he would
choose cows every time. “I’ve made a deal with God,” he said. “If