1980 Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame
Inductees
Irlo Overstreet Bronson of Kissimmee was the fourth
generation of cattlemen in his family. He was known as “Mr.
Florida Cattleman” for his work with the Florida
Cattlemen’s Association. He was a charter member of the FCA
and donated the land on which the present state
headquarters is located. In addition to his cattle and
citrus interests as well as his many civic endeavors,
Bronson served in the Florida House of Representatives from
1943 to 1951 and the Florida Senate from 1952 to 1966
including a term as President Pro Tempore in 1957.
Gilbert Andrew Tucker of Cocoa has provided dynamic
and unselfish leadership to the Florida beef industry and
has been an innovator of marketing systems of Florida
cattle. Among the specific programs benefiting from
Tucker’s leadership have been the Florida baby beef
promotion, beef importation, grading standards for beef,
graded feeder calf sales and development of the Florida
Livestock Round-Up Digest.
In 36 years with the Florida Agricultural Experiment
Stations and the Cooperative Extension Service, J. Francis
Cooper of Gainesville disseminated information about all
phases of Florida agriculture and rural home life through
the print media, radio and television.
Louis E. “Red” Larson of Okeechobee began his dairy
farming career on a small rented farm in Dade County after
serving as a pilot during World War II. Larson Dairy, Inc.
encompasses several thousand cows and more than 10,000
acres in Okeechobee and Highlands Counties. Larson served
on the USDA Dairy Advisory Committee during the Kennedy and
Johnson administrations and was instrumental in developing
present day milk marketing methods that benefit both the
dairy industry and the consumer.
Pliny Ward Reasoner accomplished much during the less
than seven years he spent in Florida before he died of
yellow fever at the age of 25. Six years after his arrival
in Florida in 1881, Reasoner was so well recognized for
competence in his field that the USDA asked him to survey
the status of tropical horticulture in Florida for
publication in its first bulletin. He personally searched
Florida and Cuba for unusual plants. Through correspondence
with botanic gardens all over the world and by importing
seeds, he introduced a wide variety of tropical plants to
Florida. Many ornamental plants thought to be indigenous to
Florida were actually introduced by Pliny Reasoner and the
Reasoner Nursery in Oneco.
Don A. Storms, Sr., of Plant City is considered the
“father” of vocational agriculture in Hillsborough County.
It was under his leadership in the 1940’s as a vo-ag
teacher and supervisor that vocational agriculture in
Hillsborough County became a vital part of the high school.
Storms served as a supervisor of vocational agriculture in
the Hillsborough County Public School System from 1947
until his retirement in 1965. After his retirement, he
taught agriculture at MacDonald’s Training Center for the
mentally retarded and enlarged a functioning agriculture
department there in 1965.
