The ‘Gentleman Farmer’ from Bascom, Florida, Jim Hart, who enjoyed nothing more than “driving his tractor and cutting hay”, was in the spotlight twice at the 24th Annual Air Force Public Affairs Association Membership Meeting banquet on April 29, 2017.

First, he received AFPAA’s Brigadier General Mike McRaney Distinguished Service Award for his more than 24 years supporting the Association. Among the many things he accomplished were designing, establishing and guiding the endowment fund and providing the printing support for the newsletter. He was a past president and chairman of the Association and served as treasurer until 2016. It was an award he earned and deserved many times over but refused to accept until he left the Board of Directors.

The second honor was the renaming of the annual Air Force Public Affairs Best of the Best Award in his honor. The AFPAA Board felt that Jim’s distinguished career in Air Force public affairs and corporate public relations merited changing the name of the award to the Brigadier General James W. Hart, Jr. Best of the Best Award; the Air Force agreed.

Jim’s 37-year Air Force active duty and reserve career was highlighted with his promotion to brigadier general. He was called to active duty to support the needs of senior Air Force leadership during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and served as the mobilization assistant to six Air Force Directors of Public Affairs.

He entered the Air Force as an Aviation Cadet in 1958. Three years later he became a reserve public affairs specialist with the 32nd NORAD/CONAD Region, Gunter AFB, Alabama. He received a direct commission in the Air Force Reserve through the Outstanding Airman Commissioning Program and became the Chief of Public Affairs, 187th Tactical Fighter Group, Alabama Air National Guard.

After serving as Director of Public Affairs for the Alabama Air National Guard, he became the mobilization augmentee to the Director of Public Affairs, Lowry Technical Training Center, Lowry AFB, Colorado. While at Lowry, he was named outstanding reservist for the Air Training Command. He was next assigned to the Pentagon as Deputy Chief of Community Relations and then Assistant Director of Public Affairs in the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs.

Jim’s civilian career took an equally upward slope leading to vice president of public affairs for Duke Energy Corporation. Just as with the Air Force, it started off inauspiciously.

In the mid-1950s he got a start in broadcasting on the Chipola College station in Marianna, Florida; became anchor and news director for WSFA-TV, NBC’s Montgomery, Alabama, affiliate, and then was executive director of the American Petroleum Institute in Alabama for 13 years. Jim was senior director of public affairs for Gulf Oil Corporation until 1985 when the company was acquired by Chevron. He then joined Hill & Knowlton Public Relations, as senior vice president and general manager of its Denver office.

In 1988 he was named vice president, corporate communications, of PanEnergy Corporation, Houston, Texas, with responsibility for internal and external communications, media relations, public relations, advertising, employee and financial publications, design graphics and printing, community relations, audiovisual services, and corporate contributions. Under his guidance PanEnergy won four Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil Awards and two International Association of Business Communicators Gold Quill Awards. When Duke Power merged with PanEnergy to become Duke Energy he became the new company’s vice president of public affairs, a post he held until retiring in 1998.

He earned a Juris Doctor in 1973 from the University of Alabama Law School and an Executive MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 1982. Always active in professional organizations and community affairs, he received numerous awards recognizing his public relations expertise and community service and had scholarships and awards named in his honor.

Jim also became a Certified Flight Instructor with single engine, multi-engine and instrument ratings. With more than 8,000 flying hours in over 25 military and civilian aircraft, he received the Federal Aviation Administration Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award in 2009.