By Ralphine Majors
Woodrow Luttrell grew up in the Luttrell House on a farm on Washington Pike in Corryton. It seemed fitting that the Gibbs High School graduate study agriculture at The University of Tennessee’s College of Agriculture from 1934-1938. The name was later changed to Institute of Agriculture. After college, Woodrow worked several years as a UT Agriculture Extension, 4-H, and County Agriculture Agent. The Knox County, Tennessee, native joined the Tennessee Farm Bureau in 1948 as Director of Information, which also included Editor of The Tennessee Farm Bureau News. In 1950 he was named Assistant to the President by the Tennessee Farm Bureau Board of Directors; and in 1957, he became Director of Field Services for the Southern Region of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF)—a position that began his career with AFBF.
In 1958, Woodrow was named American Farm Bureau’s Director of the Information Division located at the AFBF Headquarters in Chicago where he served for seventeen years. As publisher/manager, he had full responsibility for AFBF’s membership magazine, “Nation’s Agriculture,” which was renamed to “The American Farmer.”
During the seventies, Luttrell was heavily involved in what led to the establishment of a new telecommunication system for rapid communications between AFBF offices and all State Farm Bureaus. The UT graduate was the first to be named to the new position of AFBF Director of Conventions and Meetings—just in time to plan and prepare for the next AFBF Annual Meeting in Hawaii in 1977. It is understandable why this job was one of his favorites! Woodrow spent twenty-five years with the American Farm Bureau. From Corryton to Chicago, what an outstanding career for this Gibbs graduate—a man named Luttrell.