Artist: Ramona (recorded as Mrs. William S.) Farris (1918–2006)
Earl Lauer Butz
BUTZ, EARL LAUER (1909–2008), inducted 1974
Raised on an Indiana dairy farm, Earl Butz earned Purdue University’s first doctorate in agricultural economics in 1937. Over the years (and between stints in Washington), he served numerous teaching and administrative roles at Purdue: head of the ag economics department, dean of continuing education, dean of agriculture, and vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation. In 1954, President Eisenhower appointed him Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and chairman of the US delegation to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
He returned to Washington as US Secretary of Agriculture (1971–1976). Earl Butz is remembered by many farmers as a leader who championed their causes and made them proud to produce food for the world. During his years serving under Presidents Nixon and Ford, net farm income more than doubled and farm exports tripled over the previous decade. Butz revolutionized federal agricultural policy by moving away from many New Deal farm support programs that managed supply, including farm subsidies and acreage retirement programs. In its place, he encouraged farmers to “get big or get out,” especially growers of corn and soy, and he supported a market system that looked to foreign markets for new opportunity. In 1972, Secretary Butz orchestrated the sale of more than $1 billion of US grain to the Soviet Union. He resigned in 1976 after making some controversial remarks. Butz returned to teach at Purdue but pled guilty to tax evasion in 1981. In the public sector, he served on several agribusiness boards, including Ralston Purina, Case Tractors, and Stokely Van Camp. In 1999, he donated $1 million to the Purdue University Department of Agriculture Economics. His portrait was the last to be inducted in Chicago.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 59