Duffey, Haisten, Head and Mangham added to Butts County Chamber Hall of Fame

Jesse Duffey

Duffey is a native of Jackson and a graduate of Henderson High School. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1970 and was deployed to Germany. He served for two years and extended his military career by joining the Georgia Army National Guard. He was deployed to many different countries including Norway, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. He served a second tour in Afghanistan from 2010-2011, where he celebrated his 60th birthday.

While serving in the Army, he was Platoon Sergeant and ranked Sergeant First Class. His awards include an Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Army Achievement, Army Accommodation, and a National Defense Service Medal. He retired after a combined 40 years of distinguished service.

Locally, he served on the Butts County Board of Education for 10 years. He is currently the chairman of the EMC Roundup Foundation. He served the Butts County Recreation Department for 40 years coaching baseball and soccer. He was inducted into the Butts County Recreational Hall of Fame and received the Bob Ryan Above and Beyond Award and the BMOA John G. Stewart Award.

David Haisten

Haisten is a lifelong resident of Butts County and a graduate of Jackson High School. He graduated from North Georgia College where he was a member of the ROTC program and he served in the U.S. Army Reserves for many years.

In the early ’80s, Haisten opened a satellite office of Greenway, Smith and Haisten, PC in Jackson. In 2003, Haisten and Rae Johnston formed Haisten & Johnston, P.C. That firm is currently celebrating its 20th year in the community.

An active member of First Baptist Church, he worked with RA’s and taught seventh and eighth grade Sunday School. He also sang in the church choir and played the piano and organ as a substitute musician. He currently serves as a deacon and as church treasurer. He plays clarinet in the church praise band and in the Monticello Community Band.

Haisten has served on the Butts County Recreation Department Advisory Board and coached several little league teams. While his children were in school, he served as president of the Jackson Primary School PTA. He was and continues to be an active supporter of Jackson High School where he has served as president and treasurer of the Jackson High Band Boosters.

He served on the Butts County United Way Advisory Board where he became chairman and represented the county on the Greater Atlanta Board of Directors. He has served on the Butts County Chamber of Commerce board several times over the years and served as the Board’s treasurer. Haisten is a charter member of the Jackson-Butts County Rotary Club and member of the Board of Trustees of the Daughtry Foundation Inc.

Haisten continues the work his mother, Kathryn Haisten, and Kathleen Pinckney began by serving on the Board of Developmental Disabilities Boosters Incorporated. The board oversees the property including the building and the land surrounding it. Direct services are provided by the McIntosh Trail Community Service Board.

Fred Head

Head is a 1971 graduate of Jackson High School in 1971 and a graduate of Mercer University.

He taught middle school physical education and worked for a Community Action Agency and the Georgia Department of Labor before joining the Department of Corrections.

During his career in corrections, he worked as a Senior Mental Health Counselor, a Personnel Manager, Deputy Warden of Care & Treatment, and served as Warden at six Correctional Facilities, was a Regional Director, and an Assistant Commissioner. He retired from the Department of Corrections in 2008 and was hired by a private prison company to open and serve as Facility Administrator at Riverbend Correctional facility in Milledgeville.

He was elected as one of the first African Americans to serve as a Butts County Commissioner in 1985 and served for 11 years on the board and two years as chair of the Board. He also served on the Board of Managers of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, is a graduate of Leadership Butts, a graduate of Leadership Corrections, and a graduate of Leadership Georgia where he also served on the Board of Directors.

Head served as an umpire with the Butts County Recreation Department for several years, as Chairman of the Board of Elections and currently serves on the Butts County Industrial Development Authority. He and his family attend Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church where he is an active member of the Board of Deacon.

Rudy Mangham

A lifelong resident of Butts County, Mangham is one of six siblings. He often says with pride that he lives less than one mile from where he was born. He has done a variety of things in the past; supervisor at a textile mill, timber harvesting and funeral homeowner.

He has faithfully served for many years as a deacon at Towaliga Baptist Church and as a pastor to many in the Butts County community. With kindness, compassion, and humility — he serves families in the community by ministering to them through his position at Sherrell-Westbury Funeral Home.

As vice-president of the Shoes for God’s Children board, he has helped provide more than 4,000 Butts County children with new shoes each year.