Artist: Richard Stewart Halstead (born 1947)
John C. “Jack” Ragsdale
RAGSDALE, JOHN CLARK (1926–2021), inducted 1992
John C. “Jack” Ragsdale was born in Indiana and earned his bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, where he was on the Intercollegiate Judging Team. In 1948, he was the high individual at the International Live Stock Exposition. Ragsdale accepted a position to build the Sutherland Farms Shorthorn herd, Prospect, Kentucky, in 1955. Under his management, Sutherland Farms produced more All-Americans than any other herd. A decade later, he began a twelve-year term of service on the board of the American Shorthorn Association. A judge at Palermo and all major shows in North America, Jack Ragsdale served as chairman of the executive committee of the NAILE and was instrumental in securing the Saddle & Sirloin portrait collection for the Kentucky State Fair Board. Ragsdale was honored by the Indiana Livestock Breeders Hall of Fame in 1984 and the University of Kentucky Animal Sciences Hall of Fame in 1992.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 164