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....

Lena Smithers Hughes 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....

John M. Fox is a pioneer in the development of frozen concentrated orange juice, as his process proved a viable means of salvaging freeze-damaged fruit that would otherwise have been written off as a total loss. As a result, citrus growers saved millions of dollars by diverting the fruit scheduled for fresh fruit markets into...

Raymond B. Becker’s work on micronutrient requirements is considered to be as responsible as any other single factor in the development of the total cattle industry in Florida and other similar regions of the world. A second contribution to Florida is his work with citrus residues that turned a waste product into a multi-million dollar...

Dr. Herman J. Reitz is an internationally known scientist, administrator and author whose noted work, “Recommended Fertilizers and Nutritional Sprays for Citrus” is considered the most authoritative writing on the subject.

Robert G. Pitman, Jr., is given much of the credit for the successful passage of the Florida Agricultural Assessment Law, known as the “Greenbelt Law,” which has saved Florida farmers untold millions of dollars in real property taxes. In addition to his involvement in agricultural taxation and legislation, Pitman developed and patented a new citrus...