Pioneer Award Honorees

John Alex Floyd, Jr.

John Alex Floyd, Jr. was an influential leader of one of the South’s most prominent publications — Southern Living magazine.

Floyd, who was born in 1948 in Selma, Alabama, earned a bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture as well as a master’s degree from Auburn University. He also earned a doctorate in plant physiology from Clemson University.

He joined Southern Progress Corporation — Southern Living’s publisher — in 1977 as a senior horticulturalist. He held numerous positions with Southern Progress, including editor of Southern Living Classics, Southern Accents editorial director, and editorial director for Creative Ideas for Living and Cooking Light.

In 1988, he was named marketing services director for Southern Living, Southern Accents and Travel South magazines. In 1990, he assumed the position of editor for Southern Living and two years later became the vice president.

Prior to his time with Southern Progress, he worked as an instructor at Jefferson State Junior College and served as a coordinator of the college’s Agriculture and Technology Program.

Floyd had a strong dedication to serve his Birmingham community. He served on the Visiting Committee Board for Longwood Gardens, as a trustee for WBHM Public Radio Station, as an influential member of Aldridge Gardens Founding Board, and as an active board member and supporter of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Throughout his career, he elevated his position within both the agriculture industry and the community. Floyd served as co-chair of the Encyclopedia of Alabama Campaign Steering Committee, was a member of the Eastern Health Foundation, and was heavily involved in the Trussville Board of Education.

His influence was not limited to the Birmingham area. He is also the originator of the Henry Orr Foundation of Auburn University, which sponsors foreign study of ornamental horticulture for students. In 1996, he was named one of The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s “96 Southerners to Watch.” He was an active member of Huffman United Methodist Church and was involved in the Trussville Tree Commission.

Floyd passed away on Feb. 7, 2021, surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife, Pam, and sons Ryan and Alex. He will forever be remembered for his larger-than-life presence and his contributions to the state, the nation and the publishing industry as a whole.

Bill Nichols

William Flynt “Bill” Nichols had a strong dedication to agriculture and the state of Alabama, serving as a U.S. Congressman from East Alabama for almost 22 years.

Born on a small farm in Monroe County,Mississippi, in 1918, Nichols received a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1939 and a master’s degree in agronomy in 1941. He went on to work for the Alabama Agricultural Extension Service, working as an extension agent in Autauga County advising local farmers and counseling 4-H groups.

He served in the U.S. Army for five years and eventually retired at the rank of captain in 1947. During his service, he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal. Despite the injuries sustained from his time in service, he still assisted customers in assuring their cotton crops had the proper care.

He was a member of the Alabama Farm Bureau, Alabama Cattlemen’s Association, National Advisory Committee on Cotton, and served as president of the Alabama Crop Improvement Association and as director of the Coosa River Soil Conservation District. Nichols was also a chairperson of the Alabama Cotton Study Committee.

He was heavily involved in both the state of Alabama as well as its agriculture pursuits. In the mid- 1950s, he began what would become a lengthy career in politics. He served in the House of Representatives and was later elected to serve in the Alabama State Senate. In 1966, he unseated freshman Republican U.S. Congressman Arthur Glenn Andrews and began a distinguished career as a U.S. congressman. He was re-elected to 10 additional terms.

While serving in congress, Nichols coauthored the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, which reformed United States Military Command and the Department of Defense to joint operations. This helped establish the whole-of-government approach to both national security and foreign policy.

Nichols also served two terms on the Auburn University Board of Trustees. He was an assisting factor in its continued success.

Through his body of work in Alabama agriculture and his role in the betterment of farmers, advanced agriculture education and his political career, Nichols will forever be remembered as an influential figure in the agriculture industry in the state of Alabama and the United States of America.

Dr. George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver is arguably the most influential agricultural chemist and agronomist in American history. His development of products derived from peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans revolutionized the agricultural economy and industry in the South, particularly for the state of Alabama.

Carver was the son of an enslaved woman named Mary, owned by Moses Carver. With the complete abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, George was no longer an enslaved child. Yet he remained on the Carver plantation until he was about 10-12 years old, when he left to pursue an education. He supported himself through various occupations until his late 20s, when he managed to obtain a high school education in Minneapolis, Kansas, while working as a farmhand. He started his secondary education at Simpson College in Iowa and later transferred to Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), where he received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science in 1894 and a Master of Science in 1896.

Carver left Iowa for Alabama in the fall of 1896 to direct the newly organized department of agriculture at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, headed by noted African American educator Booker T. Washington. At Tuskegee, Washington was trying to improve the lot of African Americans through education and the acquisition of useful skills. Despite many offers elsewhere, Carver would remain at Tuskegee for the rest of his life.

He became the director of agricultural research in 1896 and devoted his time to research projects aimed at helping Southern farmers improve their economic situation. At this time, agriculture in the South was in steep decline because the single-crop cultivation of cotton left soils exhausted and worthless, and erosion had then taken its toll on areas that could no longer sustain any plant cover. As a remedy, Carver urged Southern farmers to plant peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans, which could restore nitrogen to the soil while also providing the protein so badly needed in the diet of many Southerners. When the state’s farmers began cultivating these crops instead of cotton, they found little demand for them on the market. In response to this problem, Carver set about enlarging the commercial possibilities of peanuts and sweet potatoes. He ultimately developed 300 derivative products from peanuts and 118 from sweet potatoes — from flour and vinegar to plastics, cosmetics and postage stamp glue. In 1914, at a time when the boll weevil had almost ruined cotton growers, Carver revealed his experiments to the public, and Southern farmers began to turn to these crops and their derivatives for income.

In 1940, Carver donated his life savings to the establishment of the Carver Research Foundation at what is now Tuskegee University for continuing research in agriculture. His great desire in later life was simply to serve humanity through his work, which began for the sake of the poorest of the Black sharecroppers and paved the way for a better life for the entire South. His efforts extended Tuskegee’s influence through the South and sustained the entire agriculture industry in an era when agriculture was the largest single occupation of Americans.

Dr. Luther Duncan

Born near Russellville, Alabama, in 1896, Luther Duncan was a pioneer of 4-H youth development, an early director of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and president of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University. His leadership qualities had emerged when Duncan was still a student at Auburn.

In his early career, Duncan served as a professor in API’s College of Agriculture. In this role, he was jointly employed by both API and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work with communities around the state to adopt cutting-edge agricultural practices. Through these efforts, Duncan played a major role in diversifying Alabama agriculture while helping establish what is now known as 4-H.

Duncan was named director of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System in 1920, five years after the system was established through the Smith-Lever Act. He had been instrumental in transitioning Extension from a primarily USDA-driven effort to one in which Auburn, as the state’s first land-grant university, held primary responsibility.

Early in his time as Extension director, Duncan invited a group of farmers, bankers and businessmen to form a statewide farm organization. This group met on January 31^st, 1921, and voted to form the Farm Bureau, now known as the Alabama Farmers Federation.

Through his years as Extension Director, Duncan earned a strong reputation for effectively managing a statewide organization on a lean budget. This prepared him well for the next chapter of his career: the presidency of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. As president, he was a strong supporter of all of Alabama’s institutions of higher learning, but successfully fought for API’s fair share of state funding. Among other accomplishments as president, Duncan secured increased funding teaching, agricultural research and Extension.

Duncan’s legacy to Alabama agriculture is that of a visionary and a reformer. He passed away in 1947.

Edward A. O’Neal III

Born near Florence, Alabama, in 1875, Edward Asbury O’Neal III plowed the way for reform during some of the most tumultuous times in modern agriculture. Before serving as the American Farm Bureau Federation’s president from 1931 to 1947, O’Neal made waves as an innovative livestock and row-crop farmer.

O’Neal is credited with incorporating many farm programs, including farm price supports, into federal law. He spoke on many occasions to the White House Conference on Rural Education, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and the Chamber of Commerce Convention in New York. O’Neal was keenly aware of the importance of elected officials, government and agricultural legislation. As American Farm Bureau president, he was a close agricultural advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On the farm, O’Neal embarked on a soil-building program that involved livestock, legumes and lime phosphate. He produced then-unbelievable yields of 40 bushels of wheat, 75 bushels of corn and a bale of cotton per acre. He began growing alfalfa in 1913 and raised livestock on his 500-acre farm near Florence. O’Neal was the first Lauderdale County Farm Bureau president and was state vice president before being elected state president in 1923. Under his leadership, the organization grew rapidly in legislative, marketing and business services.

O’Neal headed up the American Farm Bureau at a time when rural representation in Congress was starting to dramatically shrink in comparison to urban representation. He knew that if Farm Bureau was to be effective, it had to be united. O’Neal priority and greatest contribution as American Farm Bureau president was in pulling the diverse agricultural regions together. Low farm prices and surplus production plagued the farm economy through most of the 1920s, but when the Great Depression hit in 1929, conditions went from bad to worse. O’Neal impressed on Roosevelt that emergency measures were necessary to stabilize agriculture. Farm Bureau took the lead in drafting the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. O’Neal understood that Farm Bureau would not continue to be successful if members did not work together and if a U.S. President paid attention only to those factions of the Farm Bureau that were in alignment with his administration.

O’Neal received an honorary Doctor of Agriculture degree from the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, in 1932. He passed away in 1958.

David Yow Pearce

David Yow Pearce was widely known as an innovator in the catfish industry. When he began farming catfish in 1971, the industry was still young, pioneering and manually driven 24-7 and so was he. Now 50 years later, Pearce Catfish Farm ranks as one of the country’s outstanding catfish farms. In 1994, it was named Alabama’s Farm of Distinction.

Pearce was born in West Point, New York, on February 26, 1948. He was the son of a West Point Graduate. Pearce graduated in 1966 from Butler High School in Huntsville and was a member of the 1966 State Basketball Championship Team. He attended Auburn University and graduated in 1970 with a degree in business and a ROTC commission. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

While at Auburn, Pearce met his college sweetheart, Fran Weissinger. They were married on June 13, 1970. His father-in-law, Dr. William Weissinger, convinced him to try cattle farming, a culture that was foreign to him. In 1971, he moved to Browns and started dairying. But, he was drawn to the five ponds on the farm that had recently been stocked with catfish. He spent years building ponds and growing Pearce Catfish Farm. Pearce was often asked how he got into farming. He loved saying, “I married the farmer’s daughter!”

From the beginning of his farming career, Pearce participated in the promotion of U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish. In the 1970s, Pearce was a founding member and president of the Alabama Catfish Producers Association. He later was elected to the board of Catfish Farmers of America and was president in 1980. He was vice chair of The Catfish Institute. He presided over many meetings and ending them by saying, “Get used to eating US Farm Raised Catfish, it’s guaranteed to be your first meal in heaven!” In 2012, Pearce received the Catfish Farmers of America Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1999, Pearce and a dozen other farmers built Alabama Catfish Feed Mill in Uniontown, where he served as president until his death in 2020. He knew the importance of a high-quality product. The mill had an open formula so farmers knew the ingredients in feed. That policy is still in place today. The Feedmill helped improved his farming operation, but also many other operations in the Blackbelt.

While Pearce built his stellar reputation through the catfish industry, he served his community in many other ways. He served on boards at the Economic Development Board, Chamber of Commerce, People Bank and Trust, Morgan Academy, the Selma Country Club, the Alabama Golf Association, Alabama Senior Golf Association and the Southern Senior Golf Association. He was also very active in Church Street United Methodist in Selma, Alabama.

Pearce’s goal in his later years was to “become more invisible.” He said he could do that because of his excellent managers. His sons, David, Jr. and Will now own and operate the farm. Derry Bone manages the day to day operation of the farm and Brennan Nedley manages the Feedmill. Pearce knew how to hire good people and treat them with respect, dignity and honesty. He touched many lives and leaves a legacy of INTEGRITY in how to live each day and how to do business. He is survived by his wife of almost 50 years, Fran, two sons and their wives and eight grandchildren.

James Plaster

James Plaster was a true Southern gentleman with the ability to foresee the future needs of agriculture in Alabama and a drive to meet those needs as a public servant.

Plaster grew up on his family farm in Autaugaville, Alabama. After high school, he enlisted and served in the U.S. Navy during WWII and saw combat in the pacific theater aboard the USS Vincennes.

After completing his service, he enrolled and graduated in 1950 from Alabama Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in agriculture. After graduation, Plaster returned to the family farm operation and began his farming career. He grew the farm to over 1,300 hundred acres in Autauga and Montgomery counties and was the winner of the 1972 National Corn Grower Association contest for non-irrigated yield.

Plaster was known by many for his numerous roles as an Alabama public servant while still maintaining the family farm. He was director of the Autauga County Farmers Federation and in 1974 was elected to the Alabama Legislature House of Representatives for District 78. He was an influential member who served on several committees including the Way and Means Committee and the Joint Senate and House Budget Committee. He also co-chaired the Agriculture and Forestry Committee.

In 1979, he was appointed executive secretary of the Alabama State Soil and Water Conservation Committee. He served in this capacity and continued his farming operation until his retirement in November of 1992.

He was also instrumental in establishing the Catfish Diagnostic Laboratory in Greensboro, Alabama, for the advancement of the Alabama catfish industry. In 1989, he was awarded the National Association of Conservation Districts Executive of the Year Award. He also received the Governor’s Soil Conservationist of the Year by the Alabama Wildlife Federation in 1992.

Plaster was the primary leader in getting legislative support for the Alabama Crop Improvement Association Seed Technology Lab at Auburn University and supported the establishment of the Agriculture Center in Autaugaville. He also guided the cost share program through the legislature, and the state of Alabama still reaps the benefits of his dedication to agriculture and conservation.

Plaster was married to the former Marcia Van Bowers of Prattville for 40 years. His first wife, the former Lorena Woodham of Andalusia, passed in 1969 after 15 years of marriage. He has two sons, Bob and Jordan, and three grandsons.

Ralph Lovelady

Ralph Gilbert Lovelady was a true pioneer in Alabama cattle production. By paying close attention to genetics, forage production and keeping meticulous records, he developed one of the state’s top commercial cattle herds in the rolling hills of Chilton County.

Born and raised on a two-mule, 80-acre farm on the west edge of Chilton County on Feb. 21. 1921, Lovelady—who served in the United States Air Force—started his cattle operation in 1949 with eight Angus-Holstein cows and a Hereford bull. In the 1950s, cattle, hay and row crops provided income, but since the mid-1960s, cattle were and continue to be the sole source of revenue for the farm.

Lovelady hosted numerous tours of cattle producers from throughout the Southeast to his farm, eagerly sharing how he achieved top performance. He also received numerous awards for top-producing cows, and his farming operation has been profiled in numerous farming magazines and newspaper articles.

Lovelady farmed on the southern part of the Upper Coastal Plains on soils that ran the gamut from sand and gravel to heavy clay, usually suitable only for forages and trees. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, his two sons left for college and entered business, leaving him and his wife Myrtle as the sole labor force running a 200-brood cow operation. When Lovelady experienced health issues in 1988, his son Butch returned to the farm and helped to expand it.

Lovelady Farms focused on producing and marketing “predictable beef cattle,” meaning that the main goal of the breeding program was to produce a potential brood cow. The heifer was expected to calve as a 2-year-old and have the potential to wean a 700-pound calf each year. Steer calves were a by-product of the breeding program, but they had to meet the industry needs to bring top prices at sale time. The nutritional program was built around forage, with bermuda, bahia and dallis grass in the summer, overseeded in the fall with arrowleaf and clover. Lovelady began keeping individual performance records through the BCIA in 1981.

He was a tireless worker for Alabama’s cattle industry, becoming a charter member of the Bibb County Cattlemen’s Association in 1954 and later becoming its president. He also served as president and director of the Chilton County Cattlemen’s Association, regional vice president of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association and president of the Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association.

Lovelady was a deacon and a Sunday school teacher at Randolph Baptist Church. He died on Oct. 1, 1998. He and his late wife Myrtle are survived by two sons, Butch and Milton, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Richard True

Richard Dale True was a national pioneer in the catfish industry. Already in charge of dairy and cotton operations, True worked with business partners C.O. Stephens and Bryant Allen to start the country’s first commercial catfish hatchery, STRAL Company, in 1961. What began as a part-time enterprise soon developed into a full-time career.

By 1964, True was traveling to the Mississippi Delta to train other row-crop farmers in raising catfish. In November 1966, he and business partner Joe Glover Sr. started STRAL Processing, the country’s first commercial catfish processing company. After the company’s launch, True and his colleagues quickly adapted and developed new technologies to create a faster, more efficient processing system, which enabled the industry to grow more quickly.

STRAL Processing opened a new plant in Greensboro, Alabama, in 1968, with True as its first plant manager. The plant was sold to ConAgra Foods in 1969, and True moved to Mississippi to manage three more processing plants. He returned to Greensboro in 1975 to manage Country Fresh Processing. True retired in 1980. In the years since, his innovations have led to a national industry that now processes more than 330 million pounds of catfish annually.

In addition to his work as an entrepreneur and processing innovator, True was a member of the Citizens Bank board of directors, an elder at the Newbern Presbyterian Church, a member of the American Legion and Greensboro Rotary Club, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a loyal supporter of the Boy Scouts of America. He attended Auburn University from 1949 to 1951.

True passed away in 2008. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Stella Byars. He is survived by his wife, Charlotte Stewart True; daughter, Frances True Sullivan; son, Todd Dale True, and stepsons, Rodney James and Joel James.

William I. Ethridge Jr.

WILLIAM I. ETHRIDGE JR.’S love of farming began at age 9, when his family moved from the city to a farm southwest of Bessemer, Alabama. His father had a few cows, fostering his interest in dairy cattle.

In 1941, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor prompted the high school graduate to enlist in the U.S. Navy, where he served the majority of his time as a radio operator stationed in Brazil. Following his military service, he attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute on the GI Bill, majoring in agriculture science. He graduated in 1948 and started Ethridge Dairy Farm in Jefferson County that same year, using money he had saved working at a Pullman-Standard railroad-car manufacturing plant with his father and two brothers and milking cows at his father’s farm.

Throughout his life, Ethridge was an avid advocate for Alabama agriculture, especially the dairy industry, and held many leadership roles. He was Jefferson County Farmers Federation president for 38 years, from 1961 to 1999, during which time the organization grew from 3,378 members to 12,125.

He also served on the Alabama Farmers Federation’s State Board of Directors and was one of the leaders in the formation of Associated Milk Producers, an organization that helped dairy farmers get better prices for their milk.

An innovator, Ethridge traveled to Chicago for training in artificial insemination in cattle and became the first producer in his county to implement the technology in dairy cattle. He went on to breed cows for Alabama dairy farms.

A man known for his sense of humor, Ethridge was often invited to speak at agricultural events and to schools and other groups. His trademark joke was a tongue twister about a snake named Petey “hissing in the pit.”

In the late 1970s, he sold his dairy herd with plans to retire, but he couldn’t quit being a farmer that easily, so he bought and raised beef cattle for close to 20 years. After retiring from the cattle business, he continued to produce hay on his 135-acre farm.

He and his wife, Coty, married in 1959 and had one daughter, Carolyn. She and her husband, Don Baker, have two daughters.

Ethridge passed away in 2009 at age 88.

Roy N. Hereford Jr.

ROY N. HEREFORD JR.  was a New Hope, Alabama, native whose family relocated to Faunsdale in 1949 when he was 14 years old. He credited growing up on the farms in Madison and Marengo counties for establishing his love of the agricultural industry.

Hereford graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry. As a student, he served as business manager for the API yearbook and vice president of the College of Agriculture’s student council and was a member of the livestock judging team and Sigma Nu fraternity. Also during his time at API, he worked toward his commission in the Army as second lieutenant and, after graduating, served six months of active duty at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He then returned to the family farm in Faunsdale, fulfilling his military obligations with the 156th Battalion headquartered in Linden.

Throughout his career, he was active in several agriculture-related organizations, serving as president of the Marengo County Cattleman’s Association, a charter member of the Marengo County Farm Bureau and organizer of the county’s 4-H–FFA steer show. His honors included being named an Outstanding Young Farmer by the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Demopolis in “recognition of exceptional progress in agriculture and contributions to the community.”

His true passion was auctioneering, primarily at livestock and farm equipment sales. One of his most exciting moments was the selling of an Angus bull at Auburn University for $320,000.

In an effort to improve public perception of the auction business, he established a statewide association to hold auctioneers accountable for their professional conduct and to discipline individuals guilty of conducting business unethically. For his leadership, the Alabama State Board of Auctioneers posthumously honored him in 1987 for his outstanding service as a member and officer.

Hereford’s peers in the agricultural industry say he was charismatic, humble, knowledgeable of agriculture, and was successful in spreading that knowledge to others.

He and his wife, Judy, had four children—Leanne, Trey, Rachel and Samantha—and five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

In 1986, Hereford was diagnosed with brain cancer and passed away two years later. He was 52.