Distinguished Service Award

The Distinguished Service Award honors Florida agriculturists for their overall contributions to farming at the local or state level. The award is presented at the Florida Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in October. To nominate an outstanding agriculturist in your community contact your local County Farm Bureau.

We believe that more recognition should be given to the leaders who have spent of their time and efforts so freely. At this late date, little can be done to honor them as they should be. At each annual convention we honor one or more with an appropriate plaque or other appropriate memento for all the efforts that they put forth on this great organization.

With those words, in 1966, delegates to the Florida Farm Bureau Annual Meeting established the Distinguished Service Award to honor Florida agriculturists for their contributions to farming in the state.

Past Recipients:

2024- Rod and Brenda Gayle Land
2024- Wilton Simpson
2024- Jerry Davis 
2023- Scott Kirouac
2022- William “Will” Dudley Putnam III
2021- Harold Stokes and Bruce and Ann Christmas
2020- Billy Hester and Lowell Teal
2019 – Imogene Yarborough
2018 – Dalton Dowdy
2018 – Thomas “Richard” Barber, Jr
2017 – James Dickinson
2017- Henry Pittman Davis
2016 – Ron Wetherington
2015 – Anne Dickinson
2014 – Teddy Siehler
2013 – Thomas Jesse Godbold, Sr.
2012 – DA Lewis
2011 – Roy Wilson, Myron Bryan
2010 – Hugh English
2009 – Marion Tidwell, Donald Nelson
2008 – George Poucher, Bobby Beagles
2007 – Carl B. Loop Jr.
2006 – L.E. McMullian, Howell Waring
2005 – Bob Searcy, Ben Whitty
2004 – Hilward Morgan, James Watson
2003 – Bill Cotton, Herb Bryan
2002 – J.C. Bass, Jim Simpson
2001 – Jim Fogarty, Charles Partin
2000 – Helen Houck, Edmond Horton
1999 – Dorothy Lewis, B.E. “Bud” Cook
1998 – Merwyn Barrineau, Tommy Lawrence
1997 – Tom Braddock
1996 – Dudley Putnam
1995 – Al Bellotto, Bert Harris
1994 – John Talton
1993 – Fred Clark, George Townsend
1992 – John Nelson, Peter Harlee
1991 – Betty Frazier, Doyle Conner
1990 – Amos Sumner
1989 – Doyle Parker, GilbertTucker
1988 – Cyril Boyd, Oscar Harrison
1987 – Fred W. Barber, J. 0. Pearce Jr.
1986 – Ray Crawford, Carroll M. Payne
1985 – Leonard Cobb, Dr. Marshall Watkins
1984 – Sam D. Saunders, Henry W. Land
1983 – James S. Wershow, Bob Pitman
1982 – James Frank Ray, Buster Hancock
1981 – Lat Turner, Frank Bouis
1980 – Mrs. Ruth Springer Wedgworth, Aubrey Fowler
1979 – Elton Hinton
1978 – W. C. Barrineau
1977 – L T. Dyer, B. J. Sweat
1976 – Carey Robbins, T. K McCleme Jr.
1975 – Harry E. Wood
1974 – Wayne Mix on, Mrs. Zella Hawkins
1973 – Forrest Davis Jr. , Henry Pringle
1972 – John S. Allen Jr.
1971 – Billy W. Hill
1970 – Walter Welkener
1969 – Lacy Thomas
1968 – Art Karst, James C. Morton
1967 – E. H. Finlayson, Mrs. George W. Munroe