VALDOSTA – His father incapacitated, the family business deep in debt, Ashley Paulk came home.

He left his electrical engineering classes at Clemson. Attorneys told him Valdosta Electric, the business his father founded, was teetering toward bankruptcy.  

Ashley Paulk was 20 years old. 

That was more than 50 years ago.

Paulk got the business out of debt in 18 months, turned Valdosta Electric into a multi-million dollar company, at one time the 30th largest electric company in the United States; he became a banker; he married wife Ginger and they have five children and now have 25 grandchildren; he’s known for his philanthropy but is best known for serving five terms as sheriff since 1993 and at the age of 74 is planning to run for a sixth term next year.

On Oct. 1, Gov. Brian Kemp is scheduled to present Paulk with the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen’s Award, said Matt Hart, Scout executive/chief executive officer of the South Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America. 

The award recognizes “extraordinary leadership of a citizen who has rendered outstanding service to our community, while at the same time exemplifying the basic principles and tenets of scouting,” Hart said.

Paulk becomes the latest South Georgia resident to receive the council’s prestigious award. Past honorees include the late Ed Crane, 1993; Dr. Loyce W. Turner, 1996; the late Dr. Hugh Bailey, 1998; the late W. Parker Greene, 2000; Judge H. Arthur McLane, 2002; Joe Cordova, 2004; the late Bill Eager, 2006; Dr. Ronald Zaccari, 2008; Jerry Jennett, 2010; James McGahee, 2012; the late Col. Clarence Parker, 2014; Nell Roquemore, 2016; Tyson McLane, 2018.

Past Distinguished Citizen honorees choose who will be the next person to receive the award, Hart said.

They chose Sheriff Paulk.

Growing up in Valdosta

Marshall Ashley Paulk Jr. was born April 9, 1945 to Marshall Ashley Paulk Sr. and Louise Smith Paulk at what was once the Little Griffin Hospital in Valdosta.

Two months prior to the birth of his son, Marshall Paulk opened Valdosta Electric as part of his gas station on the corner of Gordon and Ashley Street. Marshall Paulk had wired ships for many years as a merchant marine.

Marshall was a robust man, 6-foot-4, weighing 270 pounds of muscle. Louise was slim and more than a foot shorter than her husband. She was a den mother when Ashley was a Cub Scout.

The family lived on Iola Drive.

Ashley was the couple’s third child and the first son. He had two older sisters – Marsha Paulk who was a brilliant student but died as a young woman of leukemia, and Pam Paulk Bowden, who was also a smart student. They were both years older than their little brother.

“I made good grades,” Ashley Paulk said. “But nothing like my sisters. I remember one teacher who also had my sisters in class asking me, ‘Are you adopted?'”

Ashley spent a lot of his childhood working with his dad in the family business. His father taught him how to do the job. By the time Ashley graduated from Valdosta High School, he planned on working in the business. He enrolled in Clemson University to learn more about electrical engineering.

Until he knew he had to come home.

Saving the business

Marshall Paulk was hurt in an wreck in 1962. He fell into a coma at one point. He was bed-ridden for a year. He was never the same after the accident.

By 1965, the business was in trouble.

“I had to come back,” Ashley Paulk said. “The electric company was in terrible shape.”

Attorneys advised Ashley to file for bankruptcy but he said he never considered that option.

With two employees, Ashley Paulk worked hard at saving Valdosta Electric. Within 18 months, the business was out of debt.

He was ready for the business to grow and it did.

No matter how busy, Paulk recalls driving to Jacksonville, Fla., every other Friday during a six-month period in the 1970s. There, one of the largest construction companies in the nation did business. 

Every other week, Paulk visited the company offices and asked to speak to the owner. The secretary always told Paulk the owner couldn’t see him. Paulk left his business card with the secretary, every time, asking her to pass it along.

After six months, the secretary marched into the owner’s office and told him to speak to Paulk. The owner offered Valdosta Electric a project. He wanted to know if Paulk could design the project, create the specs, and handle all of the other details for the proposal in 30 days. Paulk said he told him, “no. I told him we could have it for him in a week. We worked night and day but we had it ready a week later.”

Meeting Ginger

Ashley met Ginger Schroer when they were children. 

He was 10 and she was 7. They rode horses together. They had their first date when he was 16 and she was 13, he said. They were high school sweethearts. 

They married when he was 22 and she was 19.

They’ve been married 52 years.

They have three sons and two daughters: Ashley, Cara, Trav, Buck and Ginsy. They have 25 grandchildren. 

Becoming sheriff

Having sons and having been a son in business with his father sort of led to Ashley Paulk becoming Lowndes County sheriff.

By the late 1980s, Paulk said his sons were handling more of the operations of Valdosta Electric. It’s not always easy for a son to run a business if his father is always there, he said.

And the business was doing well.

“Ginger and I was blessed,” Paulk said. “We started with nothing and the Lord blessed us very much.”

But he wanted to do more.

“I was bothered by what I saw happening in Valdosta,” he said.

Crack cocaine had become prevalent throughout Valdosta and Lowndes County in the 1980s. He proposed financing a drug squad. 

He wanted to find some way to give back to the community. He said he wanted a way to serve.

“A lot of my class went to Vietnam,” Paulk said. “I didn’t go because of a messed-up leg and that bothered me.”

In 1988, Paulk ran against incumbent Sheriff G. Robert Carter. Paulk lost.

Undeterred, Paulk ran for sheriff again in 1992. Both Paulk and Carter ran as Democrats. Paulk won the summer primary election. 

During the six months between winning election and taking office Jan. 1, 1993, Paulk went to school to become Peace Officer Standard and Training certified. 

He’d never been a police officer and, at the age of 48, he was the oldest member of his POST class. Age didn’t keep him from pursuing POST certification as aggressively as he had pursued other aspects of his life. Paulk recalls doing the most pushups in the class, more pushups than men half his age.

By the time he took office, Paulk was certified as a police officer and as a sheriff. He served four consecutive terms as sheriff before deciding not to seek a fifth term. 

He ran for Lowndes County Commission chairman and immediately went from stepping down as sheriff to being sworn in as chairman. He opted not to seek a second term as chairman. He sat out of politics for four years but decided to run for sheriff again. He ran and defeated incumbent Sheriff Chris Prine in 2016. 

Asked if he plans to run again in 2020, Paulk said, “I’m already running.”

The Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen’s Award Banquet honoring Sheriff Ashley Paulk with special guest Gov. Brian Kemp is scheduled for Oct. 1, with a 6 p.m. reception, and 7 p.m. dinner, at James H. Rainwater Conference Center. Business attire. For more information to attend the Distinguished Citizen’s Dinner, contact the Scout Service Center, (229) 242-2331 or visit www.sgcbsa.org to purchase tickets online.