Edgar Hilleary Price, Jr., (January 1, 1918 – December 1, 2012), was a World War II Bomber pilot, Florida legislator, community leader and agricultural manager who fought for civil rights and public education.

Biography

Early life

Price was born in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

but his farming family moved to Louisiana, Texas and New York before returning and settling in Florida. He graduated from Sarasota High School in 1936 where he was an outstanding athlete in football, basketball and tennis. He was also student body president. He continued his education at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

World War II

He enlisted in the Army nearly a year before the United States formally entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His first year was spent in the

Medical Corps A medical corps is generally a military branch or staff corps, officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians. List of medical corps The following organizations are exam ...

. After taking a competitive exam, he was selected for

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

training. He was commissioned as a pilot in 1943 and trained

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

crews. After deploying across the Atlantic Ocean, Price and his nine member crew flew 26 missions during 1945. His plane was part of the 381st Bomber Group stationed at Ridgewell Air Base in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces S ...

flew daylight raids on Germany from 1943 to 1945 and suffered the highest casualty rates of the war. His war experiences shaped the rest of his life.

Marriage and children

Price married the former Elise Ingram on May 24, 1947 and the union produced one son, Jerald Stevens Price. Their wedding took place in the First Baptist Church of Bradenton where they were lifetime members. They both served as Sunday school teachers and Ed was twice chairman of the board of deacons. During the last 18 months of Elise's life, he took care of her 24/7. The marriage lasted for over 62 years until Elise's death on July 22, 2009.

Agriculture

After the war, Price managed a 400-acre commercial flower farm before being hired by Anthony T. Rossi as executive vice president and director of

Tropicana Products Tropicana Brands Group ( ) is an American fruit-based beverage company. It was founded in 1947 by Anthony T. Rossi in Bradenton, Florida. Between 1998 and 2021, it was a subsidiary of PepsiCo. In August 2021, 61% of Tropicana was sold along with ...

in 1955. During his years with Tropicana, he ventured into politics and served on the Florida Citrus Commission. He resigned from Tropicana in 1972 to start the ''Price Company'', a nonprofit consulting firm in Bradenton, but remained on the Tropicana board of directors until 1983. He retired from his own company in 2001.

Politics

Price was appointed by the governor to the

Florida Board of Control The Florida Board of Control (1905–1965) was the statewide governing body for the State University System of Florida, which included all public universities in the state of Florida. It was replaced by the Florida Board of Regents in 1965.< ...

, the governing body for the

State University System of Florida The State University System of Florida (SUSF or SUS) is a system of twelve public universities in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2018, over 341,000 students were enrolled in Florida's state universities. Together with the Florida College Sy ...

. He subsequently campaigned for and was elected as

state senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

from the 36th District of Florida in 1958 and re-elected in 1962. He was appointed chairman of the senate higher education committee and a member of the senate appropriations committee where he played a key role in developing Manatee Junior College. MJC was located in his home district, and for many years he assisted minority/low income students to enroll there. While serving on the board of directors at a local financial institution, he discovered that certain neighborhoods were redlined. Price threatened to resign unless the policy was abolished. He was chairman of the 1963-65 ''Special Commission for the Study of the Abolition of the Death Penalty'' and served on many corporate and governmental boards. As the end of his second senate term approached, supporters encouraged him to run for governor.

Reubin Askew Reubin O'Donovan Askew (September 11, 1928 – March 13, 2014) was an American politician, who served as the 37th governor of Florida from 1971 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 7th U.S. trade representative from 1979 ...

, Florida Governor from 1971 to 1979 stated, "I even volunteered to be his lieutenant governor, but he placed his wife and family first." Price declined to seek any office, intending to focus on his job at Tropicana. Askew also said, "He was one of the closest friends I've ever had. He was also, I might add, one of the warmest, nicest human beings I have ever known. I had enormous personal respect for him."

Civic participation

In 1971 Price was asked to chair the ''Florida Citrus Commission'' by Governor Askew, and spent two years eliminating politics from the agency. He was named to the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Manatee Agricultural Hall of Fame. He was a former board chairman of the Manatee County School District, past president of both the Manatee Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and chaired the Advisory Committee for Selection of the Chancellor for the Florida Board of Regents. The

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute ...

identified Price as one of ''Florida's 10 most powerful people'' in 1977.

Awards

The ''Edgar H. Price Humanitarian Award'' is presented annually by the Palmetto Youth Center. The Manatee County Rural Health Services Foundation honored Price in 2006 with the first ''Edgar H. Price Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award'', and each year names a worthy individual to receive it. A ''Statesmanship in Human Affairs Award'' was created by the Manatee County Branch of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

to honor Ed Price.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Ed 1918 births 2012 deaths People from Bradenton, Florida Southern Baptists Democratic Party Florida state senators United States Army personnel of World War II Politicians from Jacksonville, Florida University of Florida alumni Businesspeople from Florida United States Army officers Sarasota High School alumni 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century Baptists Baptists from Florida 20th-century members of the Florida Legislature