WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a surprise announcement during the annual Purdue Fish Fry on Feb. 2, Purdue University Dean of Agriculture Randy Woodson announced the passing of Purdue friend and U.S. agricultural leader Earl Butz.

Butz, 98, died at his son’s home in Washington, D.C. following months of failing health, according to Woodson.

“It’s a big loss for Purdue and Indiana agriculture,” he sighed, while standing before an audience of nearly 1500 Purdue ag alums, many of which knew and loved the former U.S. agriculture secretary.

Following a 70-plus-year career in public service, he passed away in his sleep Saturday morning, confirmed Woodson. He was said to be the oldest living member of the Cabinet, who served under Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, to name a few. Butz, often remembered as the outspoken American agriculture official and former dean for the Purdue College of Agriculture, was known as a champion for the U.S. farmer, promoting improvements in farm income and minimizing federal encroachment, as well as opening the door to farm exports, especially through the sales of grain to the Soviet Union.

“We can think about Earl with a smile today,” said John Hardin, who sits on the Purdue Board of Trustees, who recalled Butz’s many notable appearances at the annual Purdue Fish Fry. “He was certainly one of the most politically incorrect officials I’ve ever met.”

Consequently, due to his often unruly gift of gab, the former USDA chief may also be remembered for his resignation following intense criticism for an insensitive comment he made during a conversation with a Rolling Stones reporter in 1976.

However, even amidst controversy, Butz remained supremely popular in Midwest farm states and among farmers and ranchers across the country.

He also served as a crucial asset to President Ford, who at the time was in the middle of a tight presidential campaign against Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter.

But following weeks of intense scrutiny and pressure from Congressional Republicans, on Oct. 3, 1976, Butz appeared on the White House steps and resigned his term as the USDA ag chief.
For most in agriculture, Butz, a devout Republican, will likely be remembered for his unparalleled devotion to the U.S. farmer and promotion of sustainable farm policy.

“With little exaggeration, Earl was the most popular secretary of agriculture in the hearts of producers across the country,” said fellow colleague and former dean for the Purdue College of Agriculture Bob Thompson. “He was the greatest defender of American agriculture and he had an innate way of telling the story of agriculture unlike any other I knew. He was a very special person to me, a mentor and friend. He will be greatly missed.”

Remembering Butz’s legacy, Thompson recalled an episode of the Today Show, when Barbara Walters asked why America is experiencing such increasingly-high food prices, and if farmers are the ones gaining all the profits.

“He showed Ms. Walters a loaf of bread, took two slices off and said, ‘This is what the farmer is getting,’ Thompson recounted. “He was the master of telling the story of agriculture whether that be in the White House or in the broader urban public.”

“I had great respect and affiliation for him,” said his lifelong friend Hoy Paarlberg, who took Butz to church every Sunday. “I had a wonderful relationship with a man I greatly admired.”

Butz legacy

Butz was born on July 3, 1909, in Albion, Ind. He attended Purdue University on a 4-H scholarship, graduating in 1932, with a degree in agriculture.

“He was actually born a Democrat, and after they taught him to read at Purdue, he said he became a Republican,” joked John Hardin, friend and member on the Purdue Board of Trustees.

Butz worked for a year on his family’s livestock farm in Albion, before returning to Purdue to pursue and achieve the first Ph.D. in agricultural economics presented in the school’s history in 1932. Butz then joined the Purdue faculty as the head of the department of agricultural economics in 1946. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him assistant secretary of agriculture. He was also a member of the board of the Commodity Credit Corp. and chairman of the U.S. delegation to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

In 1957, Purdue officials invited Butz back to his alma mater to serve as dean of the School of Agriculture. By 1968, Butz had become dean of continuing education and vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation.

“He was a great teacher, he taught lessons about human behavior that are still true today,” said Hardin.

By 1971, President Nixon had enticed Butz back to Washington to serve as his secretary of agriculture in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. No doubt in tribute to his immense popularity amidst the agriculture community, he remained in the Cabinet under President Gerald Ford after Nixon resigned in 1974. Butz maintained that farmers should rely on a free market driven by exports and not federal subsidies. In the 1970s, when world food prices skyrocketed, he urged farmers to “plant from fencerow to fence-row,” to meet global demand, helping to drive down growing U.S. food costs.

In 1999, Butz gave Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics nearly $1 million and will in turn be remembered as a “great Hoosier who did so many great things for Indiana and American agriculture,” closed Hardin.

“He loved serving you, he loved his wife Mary Emma, and Purdue agriculture was always one of his first loves,” he said.
Butz’s wife, Mary, whom he married in 1937, passed away in 1995, and today he is survived by his sons Thomas and William and numerous grandchildren.