As new FFA members step into leadership opportunities each year, past national officers often leave legacies and depart with friendships that feel more like family.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic 1973-74 national officer team that included Fred McClure, who became the first African American to be elected to a national office. McClure joined 1973-74 National FFA President Mark Mayfield and National FFA Vice President Jimmy Alvarez at the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo to celebrate the milestone.
“I do what I do because of that,” Mayfield says of his year of service. “I’m a professional speaker and trainer and comedian. And when you’re a national officer, that’s basically all you do. You talk. I tell people now that I eat and I talk. And that’s kind of what we did as national officer. Now, I did some other things in between. I was an ag teacher, I was a lobbyist and so forth. But even in those professions I talked and so my communication skills are directly attributable to the FFA.”
“I hope they’ll continue to move forward to increase their membership,” Alvarez says of his vision for the future of FFA. “The basic parts of it, I hope won’t change, but I do hope that they’ll continue to grow and prosper as they have in the last 50 years.”
“I think (my biggest challenge) was dealing with organizational and structural changes that were taking place in the organization, whether that had to do with whether or not women were going to be welcomed with open arms in the organization,” says McClure, who served as the national secretary that year.
All three men said that being back together again was such a special thing. “We actually kind of snuck out and did a pre-reunion back this summer in Lake Tahoe. It was a wonderful time of reliving, probably retelling, probably making up stuff that really didn’t happen back in 1973.” McClure says.
“We look exactly the same, so I had no problem recognizing them,” Mayfield laughs. “You know, the beauty is that when you serve as national officer, you end up being brothers or sisters with them. We’ve stayed in touch over the years, sometimes not as much as we’d like because, you know, family and life gets in the way, but we have reconnected more later in life. It’s one of those deals where you can always judge how close a friend is. You can not talk with them for a long time and then pick up a conversation just like it was yesterday.”
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