Jimmy Dillon: National FFA President 1952–53
Louisiana · No. 26 of 100 · National FFA President 1952–53
At a Glance
- Office: National FFA President, 1952–53 (No. 26 of 100)
- Home state: Louisiana, a member of the Bonita FFA chapter
- State offices: Louisiana state parliamentarian, then state treasurer
- Career: Most of his working life with the Association of Farm Equipment Dealers
- Distinction: Invited President Dwight D. Eisenhower to address the 1953 convention
Jimmy Dillon was National FFA President during the run-up to the organization’s 25th anniversary, and he is credited by his own account with a moment that changed the convention’s history. He went to the White House to ask President Dwight D. Eisenhower to speak, and the 1953 convention became the first at which a sitting president addressed FFA members.
A Late Start in FFA
Dillon was born in 1932. In a 2023 interview with the National FFA Organization, then at the age of 90, he said he had attended school in Wilmot, Arkansas, where there was no FFA chapter or vocational agriculture program. When his family moved to an 80-acre farm in Louisiana when he was 14, he joined the FFA chapter in Bonita and also became active in 4-H, showing beef cattle and swine at county fairs.
Up the Ladder
As a junior he was elected state parliamentarian after serving as a delegate, and the following year he was elected state treasurer, in which role he attended the national convention. “I thought becoming a national officer would be a dream come true,” he said in the interview, recalling that he offered himself as a candidate after serving as a state officer and was elected national president.
The Presidency, 1952–53
The 1952–53 national officer team, according to a photograph in the National FFA records at IUPUI, was Dillon as president, Jimmy Willis as student secretary, Donald Travis as Pacific region vice president, Bill Sorem as central region vice president and Fred Reed Jr. as southern region vice president.
Dillon has said the highlight of his year was going to the White House to invite President Eisenhower to the 25th anniversary convention. On October 1953 Eisenhower spoke to the 26th National FFA Convention in Kansas City, the first sitting president to address an FFA convention, and received an Honorary American Farmer Degree. The Friday Footnote at NC State notes that Dillon was the national president in office when Eisenhower made that visit. The anniversary year also brought a special three-cent U.S. postage stamp for the organization and a membership total of 363,369. He also visited FFA donors with the officer team.
After FFA
Dillon spent most of his career with the Association of Farm Equipment Dealers, from which he retired. He has said FFA training benefits any student, academically or athletically inclined, and noted that several friends who became physicians and attorneys credit FFA with launching their careers. He also said he was glad when girls were allowed to join, which happened in 1969.
Why His Story Matters
Dillon’s path shows the unusual route some national presidents took: no FFA at all until age 14, then a state office team and the national presidency within a few years. His invitation to Eisenhower is also one of the few moments of a single national president clearly changing the shape of a convention.
Next: David H. Boyne, 1953–54 →
Sources
- National FFA Organization: On the Record, Jimmy Dillon (2023)
- National FFA Organization Records (IUPUI): 1952–53 national officer photograph
- The Friday Footnote: Presidents and FFA conventions (follow-up)
- The Friday Footnote: Presidents and national FFA conventions
- National FFA Organization: FFA history timeline