TIFTON — Anyone who has attended a graduation from Tift County High School in the past 30 years will be familiar with the ringing tones of Mike Chason as he calls each student’s name.

Chason, who is Director of Public Relations Emeritus at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, called his 30th TCHS graduation on May 25 for the graduating class of 2019.

The first Tift County graduation he called was 1990.

“I never thought I’d be doing it 30 years,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of different names over that time, some of them very difficult.”

Chason doesn’t take his job lightly. He practices before each event, and makes sure he confirms how each name is pronounced before the ceremony.

“Each (student) comes in front of me during the practice session and I write down a phonetic pronunciation,” he said. “I use my own symbols and figures and that sort of thing.”

Chason said he studies the script and names four or five times before the ceremony to allow him to already be familiar with each name’s pronunciation.

It is important for him to make sure he is pronouncing each name the best way possible because he considers graduating from high school an honor and said he is honored to be able to call the names.

“Every name is important,” he said. “I want to be concise. I want to be distinct and always deliver the name with gusto.”

Chason developed his distinctive speaking style over several years.

“God gave me the voice and over the years I have learned to make good use of this talent,” he said.

He started out at the Valdosta Daily Times as a sports editor until he went to work as the director of public relations for Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1979. He began giving a play-by-play of ABAC basketball games over the radio.

“Being on the air on the radio at halftime, I had 15 minutes to fill,” he said. “We only had three commercials, so that was 12 minutes that I had to talk. I talked about everything from A to Z, but all of it pertained to ABAC, because I was trying to get the good word out about ABAC during those 12 minutes. It taught me to put words together, to be distinctive — you’re on the radio, you want people back home who can’t see anything to be able to hear- and I was able to develop a style there on the air.”

He said that calling games for ABAC basketball, Tift County basketball and football games for approximately 28 years helped him develop his vocabulary and refine his speaking style.

Chason took every opportunity to speak in front of and to people, and said he urges students to do the same.

“If you’re going to be a public relations professional you need to be able to be comfortable in front of people,” he said.

Chason has called names for so long that he has sometimes called multiple generations of families.

“I have many times after the ceremony is over wandered back through the crowd there on the turf on Brodie field and hear, ‘Hey, you called my son’s name and you called my name 25 years ago,’” he said. “Well, I hope I pronounced it correctly.”

Chason said he wants to continue to call the names as long as he feels comfortable and the high school allows him to.

“This is a significant moment in these student’s lives,” he said. “They’re entering into a whole new realm of their lives after Saturday morning. For me, getting to introduce them to the world and say that name, again, with gusto, I think it’s just something special.”