Doyle Conner: National FFA President 1948–49
Florida · No. 22 of 100 · National FFA President 1948–49
At a Glance
- Office: National FFA President, 1948–49 (No. 22 of 100)
- Home state: Florida, from Starke in Bradford County
- Born: December 17, 1928; died: December 16, 2012, age 83
- Education: University of Florida, B.S. in agriculture (enrolled 1947, graduated 1952)
- Career: Florida House member and youngest Speaker in state history; Florida Commissioner of Agriculture, 1961–1991
Doyle Conner decided at 14 that he would someday run Florida’s Department of Agriculture. He told the sitting commissioner so to his face. Then he did it: after a year as National FFA President, a seat in the Florida Legislature while still a college student and a stint as the youngest Speaker of the House in state history, he became Commissioner of Agriculture in 1961 and held the job for three decades.
Road to National Office
Conner was born on December 17, 1928, in Starke, Florida, into a fourth-generation Florida family that raised cattle, grew strawberries and cut timber. He worked on the family operation as a boy and was active in both 4-H and FFA. He served as president of his local 4-H club and of the Alachua County 4-H organization, and in FFA he served as president on both the state and national levels.
The story Conner told about himself began at a Florida Cooperative Extension forestry camp at a 4-H facility. At 14 he met Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nathan Mayo and announced that he would one day hold Mayo’s job once Mayo retired. A photograph from the State Archives of Florida, taken around 1955 at a state FFA convention in Daytona Beach, identifies him as a “former state and national FFA president” and a member of the state House of Representatives from Bradford County, which shows how quickly the path he described came together.
The National Presidency
Conner served as National FFA President in 1948–49. It was a busy stretch in FFA history. The 20th National FFA Convention in Kansas City drew so many members, about 10,000, that a folding-cot hotel was set up in the basement of the Municipal Auditorium. Membership had jumped from 238,269 in 1947 to 260,300 in 1948, the first FFA Week was celebrated that year around George Washington’s birthday, the first FFA chorus and national talent program were held and the National FFA Supply Service began operating. In 1949 the first international exchange program between FFA members and the Young Farmers Clubs of Great Britain began.
Life After FFA
After graduating from high school in 1947, Conner enrolled at the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture by 1952 and joined the Alpha Gamma Rho agricultural fraternity. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives from Bradford County while still a student, serving from January 1951 to January 1961, and became the youngest Speaker of the House in the state’s history.
On January 2, 1961, he was inaugurated as Florida Commissioner of Agriculture, at about age 31. He served for 30 years, retiring in 1991, under seven governors. Florida’s citrus industry credits his first campaign as built around marketing Florida agricultural products and his tenure with attention to disease eradication, including the fight against the Mediterranean fruit fly. He supported Florida’s Greenbelt law, which protects agricultural land from being taxed as development property.
Conner was also a national figure among agriculture officials. He served as president of both the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, and as president and co-founder of the Southern United States Trade Association. He stayed close to the University of Florida, serving as president of the UF National Alumni Association in 1971 and receiving the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1972.
Legacy
Conner died in Monticello, Florida, on December 16, 2012, a day before his 84th birthday. The state’s agriculture leaders remembered him as a mentor and as a champion of youth leadership development. Three buildings carry his name: the Doyle Conner Building in Moore Haven, the Doyle Conner Auditorium in Gainesville and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services administrative complex. The University of Florida maintains a scholarship fund in his honor for Florida students who are active leaders in FFA or 4-H.
He was inducted into the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame in 1991, the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame, the Florida 4-H Hall of Fame and, in 2007, the Florida FFA Hall of Fame.
Sources
- Florida Citrus Hall of Fame: Doyle Conner (original link no longer resolves; checked Nov. 2026)
- UF/IFAS Extension Jackson County: A Tribute to Doyle Conner
- FlaglerLive: Doyle Conner, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Over Four Decades, Dies at 83
- Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame: Doyle E. Conner
- State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory: Doyle Conner at the state FFA convention, circa 1955
- WFSU: Remembering the “Boy Wonder” of Florida Politics
- National FFA Organization: FFA History
- Official FFA Manual, Past National Presidents of FFA and NFA