Stephen Monroe Yoder was born in 1948 in Greenwood, Del., but grew up on a 45-cow dairy farm in Calhoun County. A devout Mennonite, Yoder’s life consisted of devotion to his God, his family and agriculture. In 1978, Yoder and his wife started Bluebird Farm, near the Yoder home-place and turned the venture into a successful farming operation of several thousand acres, with a crop mix of soybeans, peanuts, corn, wheat, watermelons, rice, tomatoes, cotton, a cow/calf operation and Holstein dairy farm. He was the president of the Florida Soybean Association and was the director the American Soybean Association from 1987 until his death in 1994, and was president in 1993. Yoder was a founding member and speaker for the Fellowship of Christian Farmers International and was elected president of the International Foundation for Agriculture. His honors include the 1994 Outstanding Florida Dairy Family, Progressive Farmer’s “Man of the Year in Service to Agriculture,” and Friend of Extension Award from Phi Sigma Chi.