TTA AWARD WINNERS
TTA Member Spotlight on
JOE HILL,
TTA’s 2013 Professional of the Year By Jeff Rumph, CGCS, Gatlinburg Country Club, and Liz Nutter, Leading Edge Communications (publisher of Tennessee Turfgrass)
the recent TTA Annual Conference and Tradeshow in January, a long-time friend and supporter of the turf industry was honored for his 25 years of dedication and commitment to helping turfgrass managers across East and Middle Tennessee. Joe Hill, formerly with ProSolutions and now a consultant with WinField Solutions, was awarded TTA’s highest honor — Professional of the Year. Prior to 1988, Joe had served as a farm consultant with the Ralston Purina Company. That year, Terra International asked him to become the company’s turf and ornamental sales representative. “I’m a great believer in divine providence,” Joe comments, “and I believe that was one of the best things that ever happened to me, being assigned to be that salesman.” Since then, Joe has been an active member of Tennessee’s turfgrass business. Although he had no degree in turfgrass or horticulture, Joe made it a point to learn as much as he could, as quickly as he could, in order to best assist his customers. Through a few corporate acquisitions and divisions, Terra International changed to ProSource One and then to ProSolutions. Although the company’s name changed a few times, Joe never changed his way of doing business. Joe Hill didn’t work on building a customer
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Joe Hill, with (left to right) granddaughter Cobi, daughter Juli and wife Lisa.
base — he worked on forming relationships. It was this philosophy that made him successful. A member of TTA since 1990, Joe has served on the TTA board since 2011. He has also served on the board of directors of the East Tennessee GCSA since 1998 and on the board of the Middle Tennessee Nursery Association for 14 years. In addition to his industry service, Joe is deeply involved with church and charitable efforts. After the 9/11 attacks in New York, he worked with the Salvation Army for two weeks at Ground Zero. He also made five trips to New Orleans to help rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina. And, with his wife Lisa, Joe created
TENNESSEE TURFGRASS FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014 Email TTA at: tnturfgrassassn@aol.com
the Brandon Vick memorial scholarship fund, named in honor of his late stepson, benefiting turf students at Walters State Community College. Although Joe retired from ProSolutions in 2012, he returned to the industry last year as a consultant, working with Cal Hill of WinField Solutions. Clearly, he was as reluctant to leave the industry as much as the industry was reluctant to let him go. “I’ve said about a thousand times that I’ve had the best job that anyone could ever have,” says Joe. “Over the past 20-plus years, I’ve had as good a life as anybody could ever have, working a job that I truly loved to do, with people that I truly loved to do it with.”