Louis G. MacDowell
Edwin L. Moore
Cedric D. Atkins
The Florida Citrus Commission in 1942 hired three researchers to develop a product that would benefit the Florida citrus industry. Three years later, the young men - scientific Research Director Louis G. MacDowell and chemists Dr. Edwin L. Moore and Cedric D. Atkins - had perfected the method of producing the present form of frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ). The process sparked an explosion of growth in Florida citrus production while helping create the frozen food industry.
In the 1930s, Lena Smithers Hughes and her husband, U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Chemist Dr. A. E. Hughes saw a need for improving two outstanding citrus cultivars and planted a block of Nucellar Parson Brown and Nucellar Valencia seedlings. Although Dr. Hughes died in 1944, Lena Smithers Hughes maintained the seedlings. In the 1982-83 citrus season, the Hughes Nucellar Valencia bud line accounted for 60 percent of all Valencias propagated in Florida. In today’s highly scientific agricultural industry, the chances are slim that a citrus grower such as Hughes could create such a new variety of strains of budwood outside of an organized research facility.
B. Edward David, Jr., began as a breeder of Angus cattle in Dutchess County, New York, before relocating to Florida in his late 50s, an age at which many men would have been considering retirement. Once in Florida, he continued Angus cattle breeding, and became president of the Florida Angus Association. He wasn’t in Florida long before he became involved in the formation of the Florida International Agricultural Trade Council, of which he served as president for 16 years. During his presidency of the trade council, he traveled to more than 12 Latin American countries promoting the council’s trade show and Florida agricultural products. His efforts to improve agricultural, cultural and economic relations between Florida and those Latin American countries has helped increase the export market for Florida’s livestock and other products.
