Homestead
Richard Alger is one of South Florida’s most successful agriculturists, the owner of Alger Farms, Inc., which harvests over 1,200 acres of sweet corn and 200 acres of trees in Miami-Dade County. Alger is an effective leader of and spokesman for his industry. A Yale-educated plant scientist, he is a strong voice for agriculture in a county facing the challenges of explosive growth and rapid urbanization.
Richard Alger was born in 1931 in Brockton, Massachusetts. His parents, Mason and Dorothy Alger, moved the family to Florida when Richard was still an infant. In Homestead they established what is now known as Alger Farms, Inc., producing sweet corn, potatoes, snap beans and trees. Growing up, young Richard worked in the fields with his father during summer vacations. He attended Exeter Academy and later Yale University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1953.
After graduating from college, Alger became a full partner in the family business. During his farming career, he wore many hats. He ran a potato packinghouse, a sweet corn hydro-cooler and a farm shop. He also worked as a tractor driver, office manager and packinghouse manager. He always made sure his operations utilized the most current technology, and he was a great supporter of agricultural research. In the 1980s, for example, he donated $30,000 to the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences for a study on the control of silk fly. He also funded a study on the hydro-cooling of potatoes. His contributions prompted other growers to pitch in too.
Farming is a demanding profession, and many in the industry are content to focus exclusively on their own crops and production. Not Richard Alger. He always found time to represent industry-wide interests, monitoring the work of the local, state, and federal governments in their regulation of agriculture. He served on the board of many prominent agricultural organizations, including the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association. He is a past president of the Dade County Farm Bureau and the South Florida Tomato and Vegetable Growers Association. During his recent service on the South Miami-Dade Watershed Study Advisory Committee, he won the respect of everyone he worked with through his fairness and reliance on sound logic.
Alger is simply a great communicator. He has excellent people skills and knows how to talk to everyone from environmentalists to policymakers in a way that is friendly and nonconfrontational yet forthright and effective. Never afraid to speak up, he has been interviewed many times by local, state, and national media in their coverage of agricultural issues. He has a special ability to help urban residents understand the challenges facing agriculture as well as the benefits agriculture can bring to a community.
Alger is actively involved in many civic and charitable organizations, including the Homestead Housing Authority, Baptist Hospital Foundation, and Civitan Club. He was the first donor to Farm Share, a non-profit dedicated to recovering, sorting, packing, and distributing food to people in need. His donation of 10,000 pounds of potatoes encouraged other farmers to follow suit. Since Alger’s initial contribution, Farm Share has distributed over 215 million pounds of food to the poor.
Alger’s leadership in his industry and community has brought him many honors. In 1986 he was inducted into the Dade County Farm Bureau’s Hall of Honor and presented with the Chairman’s Council Award by the South Florida Soil and Water Conservation District. The Dade County Kiwanis Club honored him with its Agribusiness Award in 1976. The Greater Homestead-Florida City Chamber of Commerce named him Agriculturist of the Year in 1983 and Citizen of the Year in 2005.
Richard Alger has four grown children, Barbara, John, Cathy, and Ray, and 15 grandchildren. He lives in Homestead with his wife, Jolayne.
Frostproof
Ben Hill Griffin III is one of the giants of the Florida citrus industry. The son of legendary Florida land baron, citrus grower, and state legislator Ben Hill Griffin Jr., he has expanded his father’s empire, diversifying the family agribusinesses and continuing his father’s well-known tradition of philanthropy. As the head of Ben Hill Griffin, Inc., one of Florida’s largest citrus producers, and a major player in the famed Florida agribusiness Alico, Ben Hill Griffin III is one of the most influential people in the citrus industry today.
Griffin was born in Lake Wales in 1942 and graduated from Frostproof High School and Central Florida Community College. He grew up working in his father’s citrus groves and on the family cattle ranches. His father was tough and hard-working -- a self-made millionaire who turned 10 acres of citrus groves into one of Florida’s biggest agribusinesses -- and he gave his son no special treatment. Ben Hill III learned the business from the ground up, and when it came time for him to take over for his father he was well prepared.
Today Ben Hill Griffin III is chairman of the board and CEO of Ben Hill Griffin, Inc., a private citrus and cattle company with 10,000 acres of citrus groves and 85,000 acres of ranch and timberland in Central Florida. Other company holdings include the Lake Wales Country Club and Griffin Fertilizer Company, one of Florida’s largest producers of agricultural fertilizer.
Griffin served as chairman of the board and CEO of Alico from 1990 to 2004. His father had bought a controlling share of the company’s stock in the 1970s, when Alico owned over 200,000 acres in Southwest Florida. In the old days, the land was used primarily for citrus, timber, and cattle ranching. But as chairman, Ben Hill Griffin III aimed at more diversified uses, including sugarcane, sod-growing, rock-mining, and real estate development. Meanwhile, he continued to add citrus groves. In 1992 he acquired a controlling interest in Orange-co, a juice and beverage company that operates a large processing plant in Bartow. With the acquisition of Orange-co, Griffin became one of the few men personally involved in every aspect of the citrus industry -- from planting, harvesting, and packing to processing and marketing.
Griffin is a true leader in the citrus industry, promoting the use of cutting-edge technology and best management practices among growers and sharing his expertise as a grower, packer, and processor with each of Florida’s major citrus trade organizations. He is a board member and past president of Seald-Sweet Growers, Inc., the Florida Citrus Processors Association, and Florida Citrus Packers. He is a past chairman of the Florida Citrus Commission and past director of Citrus World, Inc., and the Florida Citrus Showcase. Griffin is a member of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the Florida Agricultural Council Executive Committee, and the Florida Agricultural Museum board of directors. He was recently inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame.
Griffin is famous for his leadership in agriculture and for his philanthropy. He is a generous supporter of higher education in Florida. In the 1990s under his direction, Alico donated 760 prime acres in Lee County near Fort Myers for the creation of Florida’s 10th public university, Florida Gulf Coast University. Alico also created a 215-acre land endowment for the university and donated money for road construction and academic chairs. The gift was valued at over $50 million, and at the time it was made it was the largest single contribution in the history of Florida’s state university system.
Ben Hill Griffin III lives in Frostproof. He has three grown children, Ben Hill IV, Candace, and Kathryn.
Madison
Rudy Hamrick was a major force in North Florida agriculture for nearly three decades. As director of the Madison County Extension office from 1951 to 1977, his impact on the county’s economy was dramatic. When Hamrick first came to Madison, the tobacco industry was declining all across Northwest Florida. Farm incomes were shrinking, along with the population in rural areas. But Hamrick was determined to try to reverse these trends. Under his leadership, Madison County became one of Florida’s leading agricultural counties, a top producer of swine, poultry, and cattle. Hamrick was instrumental in developing the county’s thriving peach industry, and by the mid-1970s there were over 2,000 acres in production.
Hamrick was born in 1922 on a farm in Monticello, Florida, to a father who divided his time between farming and dentistry. He attended Monticello High School and the University of Florida, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture in 1944 and a master’s degree in agriculture in 1950. He taught agriculture at vocational schools in Lake and Wakulla counties before joining the Extension Service as an assistant farm agent in Lake County. In 1951 he was appointed director of the Extension office in Madison County.
In 1964 Hamrick formulated a 10-year plan for agricultural production in Madison County. The goal was to double agricultural income. Committees were established for each major agricultural product. Members of these committees joined state and national associations and worked to improve both production and marketing. By 1974 Madison County had become the largest swine producer in Florida and one of the state’s largest cattle producers. A peach industry had been established, while the poultry industry had quadrupled in size to become the county’s single largest income agribusiness. In the end Hamrick’s 10-year plan exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. It didn’t just double agricultural income; it tripled it.
Agriculture was the main industry in Madison County, but for many years the county lacked adequate facilities for agricultural meetings and other activities. Recognizing the need, Hamrick successfully lobbied the Legislature for funds to construct a facility that would provide a centralized location for all agriculture-related offices in Madison County. Completed in 1960, the Madison County Agricultural Building housed the county Extension office, Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) offices, and farm forestry offices. It was also the site of Farm Bureau meetings, 4-H meetings, feeder pig sales, quarter horse sales, and the annual North Florida Livestock Show and Sale, one of the largest livestock sales in Florida.
Hamrick always said the key to his success as a county agent was “liking people” and liking to help them. He believed in the power of education and in helping farmers help themselves. He spent most of his time and energy out in the fields, offering technical advice about both production and marketing. He knew how important it was to help farmers stay informed about the latest agricultural research findings, and he was known for his excellent teaching skills. Hamrick was the first Extension agent ever to be granted the status of full professor at the University of Florida, and he was also chosen by the university to train new agents.
It’s not surprising that Madison County’s 4-H Club flourished under the leadership of this gifted teacher. The program’s popularity surged as it was expanded to cover a new diversity of subject areas, including wildlife management and entomology, as well as home economics, cattle production, and showmanship. Hamrick lobbied tirelessly for the improvement and enlargement of Madison’s Cherry Lake facility, an outdoor classroom used primarily for 4-H summer camp programs. With its rustic cabins, open-air pavilion, and lush natural areas, Camp Cherry Lake continues to provide children with an opportunity for hands-on learning in the context of the real world.
Hamrick was recognized as one of the best Extension directors in the country. In 1964 he received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor given by the National Association of County Agricultural Agents. In 1971 he became the first recipient of the SHARE Award for Excellence in Extension presented by the University of Florida. That year he was also named the national winner of the Ciba-Geigy Leadership Recognition Award. The Florida Association of County Agricultural Agents honored him with the Search for Excellence Farm Income Award in 1973, and in 1975 he received an Outstanding Service Award from the Florida Farm Bureau.
For Hamrick, being an agent was not simply a 9-to-5 job. He was often at his office late into the evenings, and he attended many meetings at night and on the weekends. He was a member of the National Peach Council, the Peach Growers Association, the Madison County Farm Bureau, and the Florida Association of Agricultural Agents. He was an organizing member of the Madison County Swine Producers, the Madison County Milk Producers, the Madison County Cattlemen’s Association, the North Florida Livestock Association, the Georgia-Florida Breeding Association, the State Feeder Pig Sale Committee, and the State Hog Cholera Eradication Committee.
Rudy Hamrick has two grown sons, Rudy Jr. and Bill, and four grandchildren. Myrtice, his wife of 58 years passed away in 2002. He and his wife, Ann, live in Madison.
Bradenton
Dan McClure was one of Florida’s most successful tomato growers, with multiple large farms scattered across the state. He was a strong supporter of agricultural research and helped advance the industry through the use of cutting-edge automation and other technology. He was an outspoken advocate for agriculture and lent his leadership skills to many of Florida’s tomato and vegetable trade organizations. In addition, he was a multi-term Manatee County commissioner with the foresight to push for the development of the county’s reservoir, Lake Manatee, as well as its deep-water port and airport.
McClure was born in Palmetto, Florida, in 1926. The son of a banker, he grew up on the family’s ranches in Manatee County and attended Palmetto High School. After earning a degree in finance and economics from the University of Florida, he served a stint in the Navy before coming home to Manatee County to grow tomatoes and raise cattle. Eventually he owned tomato, vegetable and watermelon farms in Manatee County, Immokalee, Naples, Quincy and California. He also ran a tomato packinghouse, West Coast Tomato, in Palmetto.
McClure was more than a successful grower. He was a leader in the agricultural community. A staunch supporter of agricultural research at the University of Florida, he served on advisory committees for the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center and the Manatee County Extension Service.
He was active in many of Florida’s best known agricultural organizations, including the Florida Tomato Exchange, where he served as director, and the Florida Tomato Committee, where he served as chairman. He was a member and leader of the Manatee County Farm Bureau, Florida Farm Bureau, Manatee County Cattlemen’s Association, and the Florida Cattlemen’s Association. He served on the board of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association for nearly 20 years.
McClure was a member of the Manatee County Fair Board and a member of the board of the local USDA Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. He was a great supporter of the Manatee County Agricultural Museum in Palmetto and served as a member of the Finance and Fundraising Committee. His generous donation to the museum, given early in the fundraising process, helped jumpstart the project.
In 1962 McClure won a seat on the Manatee County Commission. He went on to serve four terms, and over the next two decades he became the dominant voice in Manatee County government, pushing ahead with major investments in infrastructure. He knew how to get things done. He was instrumental in creating the Manatee County dam and water systems, the county sewer system, and the county parks and recreation department. He fought to develop Port Manatee, one of the area’s most important economic engines.
McClure was a man of incredible energy. No stranger to hard physical labor, he often worked side by side with his employees, roping cattle, harvesting tomatoes, and keeping his packinghouse running in his characteristic hands-on way. He was always on the go. But in 1971 he suffered a life-changing accident. He was critically injured when a truck pinned him against a loading dock at West Coast Tomato, crushing his pelvis and nearly cutting him in two. He underwent numerous operations and months of grueling physical therapy in order to learn to walk again.
McClure faced the aftermath of the accident with uncommon courage, perseverance, and good humor. Though he would be in and out of hospitals for the rest of his life, he never let the pain stand in his way and often conducted business by phone from his hospital bed.
McClure’s success and leadership in the agriculture industry brought him many awards and honors. Early in his career he received the Outstanding Young Farmer of the Year award from the Junior Chamber of Commerce. In 1989 he was named Manatee County’s Outstanding Agriculturist and inducted into the county’s Agricultural Hall of Fame. In 1999 he was named an Outstanding Agriculturalist by the Florida Association of County Agricultural Agents.
Dan McClure passed away on September 23, 2006, after a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Corrine and four grown children, Scott, D.C., Mary Anne, and Sandra.
