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Randy Nix has spent 16 years representing LaGrange and Troup County in the Georgia house, and now he’s looking forward to retirement and some more time with his grandkids.

Nix, who was the speaker at Tuesday morning’s LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce Early Bird Breakfast, reminded chamber members that age is just a number and that politicians are people too.

“The only difference between you and them, they put their name on a ballot and asked you to vote for them,” Nix said.

“That’s the primary difference. They’ve got families, they’ve got feelings, they work.  So just looking at most of these people, and also all of these people in this delegation — we have a great delegation in Troup County — are good people.”

Nix represents Troup, Carroll and Heard County as District 69’s representative in the House.

Before Nix’s speech, a speech he gave earlier this year as chairman of the House Ethics Committee, was shown on the video screen at the breakfast. When a couple of incidents regarding House members needed addressing, Nix took the floor to remind everyone in the room why they were elected. He also urged them to consider who they might be letting down.

“Think of a person you admire the most in this world that you would hate to disappoint,” Nix said then. “And imagine that everything that you do and you say while you’re in this house is live streamed directly to them.”

Nix said Tuesday that he’s turning 70 soon, and he thought it’s about time he retires from the House.

“I want to thank you so much for allowing me to serve 16 years in the Georgia House. That 16 years has passed really, really, really quick,” Nix said. “I just turned around and it was 10 years. And I told [my wife], well I’ll just run one more time. Well, then it’s 12 years. Well, I’ll just run one more time. Then it was 14 years. I said, I’ll run just one more time. Finally, she said, ‘you’ve got to be more creative than that.’”

Instead, Nix has decided to retire.

He said his role in passing House Bill 186, the passage of the state’s career pathways bill for education, which he said has led to higher graduation rates and success in helping prepare students for the workforce, is his “signature accomplishment.”

Prior to his political career, Nix served seven years in the Alabama Air National Guard where his final assignment was as a weapons system officer flying the RF4-C Phantom aircraft. He was honorably discharged with the rank of captain. Prior to his service in the Air National Guard, Nix served five years as a chaplain’s assistant in the U.S. Army Reserve. Nix also serves as a pastor at the Hillcrest United Methodist Church in LaGrange.

He is a member of the Rotary Club of LaGrange, past president of Boys and Girls Club of West Georgia and past president of the West Georgia Technical College Foundation Board. He and his wife, Debra, have two children: Julie Nix Farr Jess R. Nix.