Posted: 5-1-2008
UF Agricultural Women's Club celebrates 100th anniversary
In 1908, the first Ford Model T rolled off the assembly line, William Howard Taft was elected president, and at the University of Florida a club formed to help the wives of College of Agriculture faculty get to know each other and the community.
A century later, the Agricultural Women’s Club is the oldest nonfaculty organization on campus. On April 17 the current members celebrated the club’s accomplishments and goals with a reception at the President’s House.
The event featured presentation of the club’s first Women of Distinction Award, which recognizes the state’s female agribusiness leaders.
Hariot Greene, a citrus grower and cattle rancher from Vero Beach, received the award. Mrs. Greene has worked with her husband, Barney Greene, since the late 1950s to build their business, Greene Groves and Ranch.
The company spawned numerous other businesses where Mrs. Greene has held executive positions, including director of Greene’s Citrus Management; director of Greene River Packing and president of H.H. Greene Inc.
Also at the reception, four female graduate students were recognized.
Two of them are the 2008 recipients of the Agricultural Women’s Club Scholarship—Christie Ann Klimas, a doctoral candidate in forest resources and conservation, and Julie Wiggins Sorenson, a master’s candidate in interdisciplinary ecology.
Patricia L. Toth, a master’s candidate in entomology, is the 2008 recipient of the Barbara Warnick Scholarship.
Heidi Noel HansPetersen, a doctoral candidate in entomology, is the 2008 recipient of the Vam Cardwell York Scholarship.
During its first 40 years the club, originally called the Extension Club, expanded its mission to include service and charity work and in 1947 adopted its current name.
Today, the club also promotes academic achievement and diversity within the UF community. Its scholarship program was established in 1989 to encourage women to pursue advanced degrees in agricultural disciplines.
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Peg Davidson (left) presents the Woman of Distinction Award to Hariot Greene at the reception
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