Dr. David Bridges began his 17th year as the president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College on July 1. He’s counting on it being the shortest year of his tenure.

“I have done all I can do, and I don’t have any regrets,” Bridges, who retires on July 31, said. “It will be up to the members of the next leadership team to keep ABAC moving. I am confident that they will.

Dr. Tracy Brundage, now president at Keystone (Pa.) College, will take over as ABAC’s 11th president on Aug. 1. Bridges will become the Director for the Center for Rural Prosperity and Innovation. He has been the Acting Director since it was established in 2018.

“The Center has a statewide mission to support economic development and prosperity in rural Georgia,” Bridges said. “Rural communities face many challenges, hurdles, and obstacles as they attempt to revitalize and strengthen their communities.”

A native of the tiny Terrell County town of Parrott, Bridges knows rural Georgia like the back of his hand.

“The Center focuses its efforts on outcome-based project management, projects that result in measurable impact,” Bridges said. “Personnel from the Center are on the ground, working to make things happen.”

Bridges leaves quite the legacy at ABAC. He is the longest serving president in ABAC’s 114-year history and the only ABAC president to have once been a student at the college (Class of 1978). He is also the longest serving president among the 26 colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia (USG).

When he took office on July 1, 2006, Bridges immediately impacted the future of ABAC by recognizing that the college had to be able to offer bachelor’s degrees to survive. In January 2008, ABAC began offering those four-year degrees which now include 12 different programs of study leading to a bachelor’s degree.

“Bachelor’s degrees changed everything,” Bridges said. “ABAC had no future as a two-year college even though we had been one for 75 years.”

Bridges has led ABAC through periods of record enrollment, a consolidation of the Bainbridge State College campus into ABAC, and the addition of the former Georgia Agrirama, now a part of the campus known as ABAC’s Georgia Museum of Agriculture.

The Historic Front of Campus rehabilitation painted a fresh face on the entrance to ABAC and gave new life to ABAC’s three original buildings, Tift Hall, Lewis Hall, and Herring Hall. Bridges spearheaded that effort and carried the funding portion of the $15.5 million project across the goal line with the USG and the legislature.

ABAC’s enrollment has grown to 3,815 students from 155 Georgia counties, 52 Florida counties, 18 states, and 19 countries. Over 2,300 of those students major in bachelor’s degree programs and a record 60 per cent of the students are female.

And now Bridges is ready to step away from the president’s office.

“It’s time to do something different,” Bridges said. “I have enjoyed my tenure as president of ABAC, and it’s been a great capstone to my career.”

Any advice for the new president?

“My primary advice to her is to remain laser-focused on our mission,” Bridges said. “Focus on who ABAC is and what ABAC can be. Don’t get caught up in who people think ABAC should be.”

With a portion of 17 years under his belt, Bridges offered a prognostication as to what ABAC will be like 17 years from now.

“I think ABAC will be the destination college for students who want to study in programs relating to agriculture and natural resources for the southeastern United States,” Bridges said. “We have to invest in programs that will show a return on our investment.”

Bridges will miss many facets of the ABAC organization when he departs, but there are two days a year that he will miss the most.

“Graduation days, without a doubt,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.