Kenneth Kennedy: National FFA President 1964–65
Kentucky · No. 38 of 100 · National FFA President 1964–65
At a Glance
- Office: National FFA President, 1964–65 (No. 38 of 100)
- Home state: Kentucky, from Trigg County
- Distinction: Second National FFA President from Kentucky
- Notable moment: Presented an FFA jacket to National NFA President Adolphus Pinson at the 1965 merger ceremony
- Later work: Not documented in the public sources this site could reach
Kenneth Kennedy of Trigg County, Kentucky, was National FFA President in 1964–65. His term spanned one of the most significant events in FFA history: the 1965 merger of the New Farmers of America with FFA. According to the Kentucky FFA Association’s Wikipedia entry, he was the second Kentuckian to hold the national office.
The 1965 Merger Ceremony
FFA’s “FFA Moment” feature records that during the 1965 merger ceremony, National NFA President Adolphus Pinson exchanged his NFA jacket for an FFA jacket handed to him by National FFA President Kenneth Kennedy. The New Farmers of America had been founded in 1935 at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to give Black agriculture students leadership opportunities, and it grew to 1,004 chapters in 12 states and more than 50,000 members before the federal government took it under the U.S. Department of Education in 1941. The photograph of the exchange is held in the IUPUI Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archive.
FFA Around This Term
Kenneth Kennedy followed Nels Ackerson and was succeeded by Howard Williams in the line of national presidents.
FFA’s own history timeline records these developments in the surrounding years:
- 1964: The one-millionth official jacket was sold.
- 1965: The New Farmers of America merged with FFA.
What the Record Does Not Show
This site did not find a biography of Kennedy’s later life. The merger ceremony is documented in a photograph caption and FFA article, but not in a source that describes what Kennedy himself said or thought that day.
Next: Howard Williams, 1965–66 →