Before he was president of the Florida Strawberry Festival, Jim Jeffries spent decades coaching FFA students and supporting them when they won awards for their achievements. But, last month, Jeffries was the one receiving an award for his contributions to FFA in Florida.
The FFA Florida Hall of Fame recognized Jeffries as a 2014 inductee Sept. 29, at a ceremony in Haines City.
Just three days after graduating in 1969 from the University of Florida with a degree in agriculture education, Jeffries immediately started his career at Pinecrest High School.
For the following 20 years, Jeffries taught agriculture education and coached four FFA chapters: Pinecrest High School (1969 to 1970), East Bay High School (1970 to 1980), Tomlin Middle School (fall 1980) and Plant City High School (1981 to 1989). He said he had truly enjoyed working at each of these Hillsborough County schools.
“I enjoy the competition, watching the kids succeed,” he said. “When you have kids that have a good attitude whether they win or lose, it’s a pleasant task working with kids like that.”
Jeffries said one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching and coaching FFA had been the student-teacher relationships that grew out of the program. But, another highlight for him was witnessing his students become national FFA officers.
“I didn’t get emotional too often, as far as those things go, but watching one of them become the national FFA president … it was just touching when that happened,” he said.
Erica Der graduated from PCHS in 2003 and held the FFA national office of Southern Region vice president from 2005 to 2006. Although Jeffries was no longer teaching at PCHS while Der was a student there, she remembers his continued involvement with the district.
“No matter what Hillsborough County students were involved in, he was always there on the sidelines supporting and encouraging and letting the students know that they were cared for,” Der said. “He worked really hard to make sure that all the schools had the resources they needed.”
In 1989, Jeffries stopped teaching at PCHS and became the supervisor of agribusiness education for Hillsborough County Public Schools, District VI. He stayed in that position until he retired in 2008. He became president of the Florida Strawberry Festival in 2013.
The Florida FFA Hall of Fame began recognizing inductees in 2007. Along with Jeffries, this year’s other inductees were Marion Riviere, Olin Stoutamire, Leon Sims, Archie Matthews and Emelie Matthews.
Jeffries won many awards throughout his career for his excellence as an agricultural educator. But, he said being inducted into the FFA Hall of Fame was one of his best professional moments, along with becoming an elder in the Presbyterian church and becoming president of the Florida Strawberry Festival.
“A lot of the other teachers in Hillsborough County were some of the reasons that I received the award, because they supported me in everything for the 20 years that I was the supervisor,” Jeffries said.
At the Hall of Fame ceremony, Jeffries was asked to give a short comment after accepting his award. It turned into a 12-minute speech, because he had so many friends, family members, co-workers and students in mind who he thought deserved his gratitude.
“Trying to say, ‘Thank you,’ to all the people that really caused the award — I got kind of emotional about that,” he said. “That was just an uplifting experience.”
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.