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Gus R. Douglass Jr.: National FFA President 1946–47

West Virginia · No. 20 of 100 · National FFA President 1946–47

By FFApresident.com Editorial

At a Glance

Gus Douglass spent his working life proving a point that FFA makes to every member: leadership learned on a farm can run a state. He was a beef and grain farmer from the Ohio River country of Mason County who became national president of the Future Farmers of America in 1946 and then, after winning his first election in 1964, served 44 years as West Virginia’s Commissioner of Agriculture. When he died, the Associated Press described him as the longest-serving state agriculture chief in the nation.

Road to National Office

Douglass was born on February 22, 1927, and raised on a farm at Grimms Landing in Mason County, West Virginia. The West Virginia Encyclopedia records that he was active in 4-H and in the Future Farmers of America. He served as state FFA president in West Virginia, was chosen a West Virginia Star Farmer and was also named a 4-H All-Star, honors that tell you he was winning on the production side of agriculture as well as the leadership side.

West Virginia had chartered its FFA association in 1929, and Douglass would become the state’s only national president. Harold Gum of West Virginia had held the title a few years earlier in the wartime year 1942–43, but Douglass is the only West Virginian listed as having been elected to a full term and the only one the state’s encyclopedia credits with the distinction, in its own words, of serving as national president of FFA.

The National Presidency

Douglass served as National FFA President in 1946–47, the first full year of peacetime after World War II. The war years had pared conventions down to delegates and award winners; in 1942 just 217 people attended. By contrast, the 1946 “Victory Convention” in Kansas City drew 12,500 people and honored the 260,450 FFA members who had served in the armed forces and the 7,188 who died. West Virginia Public Broadcasting later noted that Douglass presided over the first FFA conference following World War II.

It was the beginning of a rebuilding period. Membership jumped from 238,269 in 1947 to 260,300 in 1948, and the first National FFA Band performed at the national convention in 1947. Douglass’s year sat at the front edge of that postwar growth.

Life After FFA

Douglass earned a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University and later received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from West Virginia State College and an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree from West Virginia University. He farmed in Mason County, where the family operation specialized in beef cattle and grain production.

In 1957 he joined the West Virginia Department of Agriculture as Assistant Commissioner, recruited by then-Commissioner John T. Johnson. He held that post until he ran for the top job himself. After winning his first election in 1964, he stayed in office through 11 terms, serving under a long list of governors, until he announced in May 2011 that he would not run again in 2012. Walt Helmick won the seat in the November 2012 election.

His national work was extensive. He served as president of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture, twice served as president of the Southern United States Trade Association and chaired the Southern Regional Committee for Food and Agriculture under President Jimmy Carter. He also helped organize, and served as first president of, the National FFA Alumni Association, tying his later career back to the organization that launched it.

West Virginia University, West Virginia State and the state’s farm community honored him repeatedly. He was recognized as Progressive Farmer magazine’s “Man of the Year” in West Virginia agriculture and was enshrined in the West Virginia Agriculture and Forestry Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2006, West Virginia State University renamed its land-grant programs in his honor.

Legacy

Douglass died on March 19, 2015, at age 88, after a fall at his home in Mason County. Treasurer John Perdue, who had worked under him at the Department of Agriculture, said that during his terms Douglass transformed how the department did business and advocated for farm issues nationally. For the FFA story, his record is the clearest early example of a national president whose organizational skills carried straight into public service, and he is still one of the longest public careers any former national president has had.

Next: Ervin Martin, 1947–48 →

Sources

← J. Glyndon StuffErvin Martin →

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