January 4, 1995
Anne Wardlaw Dickinson Named "Woman Of The Year In Agriculture" For 1994
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Agriculture Commissioner Bob Crawford today announced that Anne Wardlaw Dickinson of Frostproof has been named Florida's "Woman of the Year in Agriculture" for 1994.
"Anne Dickinson is an innovative and tireless educator and promotor for Florida agriculture, in which she has worked all her adult life," Crawford said. "Her leadership, enthusiasm and dedication to the industry and her community make her eminently qualified and deserving of this honor."
Dickinson's family began buying citrus groves in Polk County in the 1930s. She and her husband, James, then bought the grove property from her family in 1974 and Dickinson soon became involved in all phases of the business.
The family enterprise now includes 400 acres of orange and grapefruit groves, a grove care-taking business, a 200-acre cow-calf operation and a gift-fruit shipping business. Dickinson is secretary/treasurer of the family businesses and manages the "Cracker citrus" gift-fruit shop.
When Dickinson first got involved in the citrus business, she realized that she and other women whose families owned groves really knew little about the industry. So Dickinson organized Florida citrus Women in the 1980s to educate women citrus growers. The group took special classes at Polk Community College and went on local and international trips to visit citrus production and processing operations.
This was just one of many educational and promotional endeavors relating to agriculture in which Dickinson became involved over the years. A school teacher at one time, Dickinson helped organize and chairs the Polk county Agri-Fest, a program designed to educate fourth-grade students about agriculture. She has also "adopted" school classrooms in Maine and New Hampshire, writing to students there about life as a Florida citrus grower.
Dickinson is an active member of the Florida Farm Bureau, serving on numerous committees at the local, state and national level. She is also a member of Associated Country Women of the World, an international organization of farm women. In Frostproof, Dickinson is an active member of the First United Methodist Church and she has contributed her time and talents to qity government, the Frostproof Woman's Club and other civic organizations. She also maintains a collection of more than 1,500 citrus labels and other artifacts relating to the industry.
"If you want a community project to be successful, you want to have Anne Dickinson on the committee," one person wrote in supporting her award nomination. Dickinson has been featured in "Farm Wife News" and "Country America" magazines and her adopted classroom letters have been printed in "FloridAgriculture," published by the Florida Farm Bureau Federation.
Dickinson is the 10th person to be named "Woman of the Year in Agriculture," an award sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Florida State Fair. She was chosen for the honor by an independent panel of judges outside of the Department.
Crawford is scheduled to present the award to Dickinson on February 3, 1995, during the opening-day luncheon at the Florida State Fair in Tampa. Tickets for the event are available by calling Florida Expo Park at 1-800-345-3247.
