51����

Issue: Spring 2016 | Posted: April 25, 2016

Jai Templeton

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Distinguished Service Award

Presented to a member of the Union community for distinction in his/her profession, service to mankind, and/or contribution to 51����.

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Jai Templeton, newly appointed as commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Agriculture, says he has always had two great loves in his career—agriculture and politics— and God has allowed him to pursue both.

“Those have been two doors that have always seemed to be opened to me,” Templeton says. “And they’ve sort of culminated here at the Department of Agriculture. I am very blessed that I’ve never had to elbow my way through a door.”

Templeton graduated from Union in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Even before graduation, he began working on the campaign for former U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant. From 1995 to 2003, he served as a field representative for Bryant. He later served as county commissioner and president of the McNairy County Chamber of Commerce before being elected mayor of McNairy County.

Templeton says he enjoyed his time as mayor even though it was a tough job. He says local government is the greatest government.

“That’s where you really work with the people you’re serving every day,” he says. “You really get to fix problems.”

Templeton says politics, especially at the state and federal levels, has gotten a bad name because of certain practitioners, but he does not think it is deserved.

“People generally view that word with a lot of negativity,” he says. “But politics is really how we get things done. We’ve got the greatest system of government in the world.”

Templeton is a sixth generation farmer, and he has continued to produce grain, cotton, hay, timber and cattle in McNairy and Hardin Counties.

He says he always had an interest in the political world and was active in several campaigns even in high school, but the relationships he built at Union allowed him to pursue public service as a career path.

“There’s a line that can be drawn through each thing I’ve done that, had those relationships not been built early during the time at Union, this career would not have been available to me,” he says.

Templeton says he had brilliant professors in both business and political science, and Union further opened doors for acquaintances and friendships in West Tennessee and the rest of the state.

“My appetite was pretty well built for politics and public service by the time I was a student there,” he says. “But the basis of a Christian education, a strong Judeo-Christian work ethic, the attitude of service. Those things were instilled in me at Union.”

Templeton and his wife, Allison, have three children and live on their family farm in Stantonville, Tennessee. They are members of First Baptist Church of Adamsville.