OKEECHOBEE — On Friday, June 19, the Florida FFA announced that they would be inducting Okeechobee local Calvin “Buddy” Mills into the FFA Hall of Fame.

Calvin Mills was born in Sebring and raised in Okeechobee. He attended college in Wyoming and then returned to Florida where he worked with the Department of Agriculture for 21 years. He then resigned from there to become a teacher and he taught for 21 years at Yearling Middle School.

Mills joined the Okeechobee FFA when he was in the ninth grade and stayed in it until he graduated. At the time FFA was only offered to high school students. It was an experience that shaped who he was to become.

“Through those experiences,” Mills explained. “I knew that if I ever had the opportunity to pursue a career, I wanted it to be circled around the FFA. Once I started teaching, it was like coming home, and giving back to a system that had given me so many memories early on in my life.”

Mills never forgot his time spent in the FFA program and believes that his career actually began in high school as a result of those experiences.

After joining Yearling Middle School as a teacher in 2001, Mills helped transform the school’s agriculture program and FFA chapter. “I wanted to give back to an organization that had given me so much,” Mills explained.

With a lifetime of agricultural experience behind him, Mills has inspired countless students to pursue FFA and careers in agriculture.

Mills said some children who initially didn’t have any interest in agriculture were introduced to it through FFA, and went on to pursue careers in the field. Some of the students he taught have gone on to become agriculture teachers and lobbyists.

“When I look back on the students and see the ones that are still involved in ag education or some form of agricultural career,” Mills stated. “I’d like to think that I had something to do with that.”

Mills has two sons of his own and both of them were heavily involved in the FFA program throughout their schooling. They went on to pursue careers in agriculture but eventually switched to more profitable work. Mills understands why that was necessary but says agriculture remains in their hearts.

The thing about FFA though, according to Mills, is that it can prepare you for more than just a career in agriculture. He says it can help with public speaking, mechanical work, electrical work and much more. When asked what his favorite part of the program was as a youngster Mills said, “It ws developing friendships, knowledge and the opportunities I gained through the district and state contests.” He explains that it opened him to a world of diversity that he had not experienced being a ranch boy from Okeechobee.

Even after his retirement, Mills stayed involved with Okeechobee FFA, from mentoring students and teachers to volunteering at events. He currently serves as president of the Okeechobee FFA Alumni.

“Being inducted into the Florida FFA Hall of Fame is something I would have never dreamed of,” Mills said of his recognition. “Some of my most memorable memories wasn’t necessarily winning a state contest or winning a national contest. It was saying something kind or something influential to help a kid on given day.”

When speaking to Mills, it’s clear why teaching called to him. He can’t seem to toot his own horn for very long without having to stop and veer the conversation back to the children that he has had the pleasure of teaching and working with through the FFA program. “This is a very prestigious and humbling honor,” Mills says. “But I don’t want to beat my own drum, I’m beating the drum for FFA.”

Of course, he also had to mention how none of it would be possible without the support of the parents of Okeechobee students and the Okeechobee Schools’ administration which he says made his job “a whole lot easier.”

 In 2015, Mills was awarded a Florida Folk Heritage Award.