Earl L. Butz

Source: Department of Agriculture Biographical Summary - May 1974

Earl L. Butz was born and grew up on a small farm near Albion in Noble County, Indiana. He attended Purdue University on a 4-H Scholarship where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture In 1932.

He worked for a year on the family farm, then returned to Purdue as a graduate fellow, and subsequently became a research fellow with the Federal Land Bank of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1937, he received the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Agricultural Economics from Purdue.

The same year he married Mary Powell of North Carolina, whom he first meet several years before in Washington, D.C. at a national 4-H conference. They have two sons, William Powell and Thomas Earl.

Dr. Butz joined the Purdue University Agricultural Economics Faculty in 1937, served briefly as a research fellow with the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. and then became head of the Purdue Agricultural Economics Department in 1946. In 1948, he was Vice President of what is now the American Agricultural Economics Association, and in 1951 he was Vice President of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.

In 1954, President Eisenhower appointed Dr. Butz as an Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. In that capacity he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Commodity Credit Corporation and was Chairman of the United States Delegation to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Dr. Butz. returned to Purdue in 1957 to become Dean of the School of Agriculture, and in 1968 was named Dean of Continuing Education and Vice President of the Purdue Research Foundation.

Dr. Butz was nominated to the cabinet by President Nixon and took office as Secretary of Agriculture in December, 1971. In that post, he has worked tirelessly to promote American agriculture, to keep the United States the world's best fed nation, to improve farm income, to strengthen rural America, to minimize Federal encroachment into farming, and to expand and keep open farm export markets. He has sought to convey to farmer and consumer alike the wisdom of the market system as the most effective means of obtaining an abundance of high quality food and fiber for consumers and acceptable income for farmers.

Among many recognitions made to the Secretary, he has received the American Farm Bureau Federation Award for Distinguished Service to Agriculture--the first Secretary of Agriculture to be so honored in more than a quarter of a century.

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Last Updated: Tuesday, July 14, 1998