Harvey, Charles and Rae

Charles Andre Harvey (Feb. 14, 1932 - Sept. 9, 1999)
& Rae Grundman Harvey (Aug. 20, 1928 - )

Over the years, Charlie and Rae Harvey have given dedicated service to tobacco growers in North Carolina. Charlie was known as an insightful, great communicator and the best salesman any tobacco grower could ever have. At the same time, Mrs. Rae ran a very efficient office and served as TGANC's chief membership recruiter each year in their booth at the Mid-Atlantic Farm Show.

Charlie served as executive vice president of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina, Inc. starting in 1989. In that time, he built its membership to the largest in history and provided outstanding leadership to make TGANC a major contributor to policy development in the tobacco industry. During his tenure, Charlie established a permanent office for the association, expanded the board to include 50 grower and allied industry directors, developed the "Century Member" program, which resulted in expanded membership that represents 75 percent of tobacco production in the Tar Heel State. In addition to giving TGANC a wider exposure, Charlie established meaningful relations with other tobacco related groups and organizations. There he was sure to point out that TGANC is the only commodity organization serving solely the interests of tobacco growers. This resulted in expanded representation on the Tobacco Foundation and Tobacco Associate board of directors.

Harvey's other significant contributions to North Carolina tobacco, agriculture, and NCSU include serving as a charter member and director of the N.C. Tobacco Foundation, as chairman of the NCSU-CALS Board of Advisors, and as chairman of the Referendum Committee to establish a "check-off for tobacco research. As vice president of the N.C. Tobacco Research Commission, Charlie played a key leadership role in acquiring state funding to retain research positions vacated by USDA at the Oxford Research Station and has been a participant in National Tobacco Advisory Committee deliberations to propose possible modifications to the Tobacco Program. As part of an ad-hoc committee further studying the tobacco marketing system, Charlie showed effective leadership in the development of the new delivery package - the bale.

Before his work with TGANC, Charlie worked as an agribusiness financial consultant after retiring from Peoples Bank and Trust Company in 1985, where he organized an agribusiness department and served as senior agricultural credit officer for 13 years.

As TGANC Office Manager, Mrs. Rae Harvey has been responsible for scheduling appointments for officers, arranging for board meetings, maintaining membership records and handling the daily administration of the office.

Married August 24, 1954, they had three children Deborah Rae Blalock (b. 1956), Rebecca Lynn Colonna (b. 1958), and Charles Andre, Jr. (b. 1962). To these children were born four grandchildren. In addition to their natural family, the Harveys also had a "tobacco" family that included all the TGANC directors. Throughout his term as executive vice president of TGANC, Charlie Harvey spent a lot of time "repaying a debt to tobacco. " Says Tobacco Great Harvey, "It's been responsible for my education, for my success in the fertilizer business and in banking. It's paid for my children's education."