Fred L. Shipley
Fred L. Shipley was born Oct. 11, 1905 in Cookeville, Tenn. He graduated from Putnam County Technical High School in Cookeville in 1923. In 1924 he entered Tennessee Polytechnic Institute, also in Cookeville, majoring in agriculture.
After two years of college study he accepted a job with the Knox and Warren Counties Dairy Herd Improvement Association in Illinois with the job title of “cow tester”. His starting salary was $1,200 annually.
As a “cow tester” his job description included visiting dairy farms one day each month and staying overnight for the purpose of weighing and testing the production of each cow and determining her profit or loss.
Fred also made recommendations to the farmer to promote better feeding and breeding practices. Occasionally, he arranged tours coupled with demonstrations in the interest of better dairying.
In order to further his education, and not wishing to be a “cow tester” on a permanent basis, he returned to Tennessee Poly Tech in 1927.
In February 1930 he accepted the position of manager of a small cooperative in Champaign, IL – the Champaign County Milk Producers Association. While at Champaign he resumed his quest for knowledge by registering at the University of Illinois to take courses in marketing and economics.
Moving on to bigger and better accomplishments, Fred accepted the position of assistant manager with the Sanitary Milk Producers Association in St. Louis. Much of his time was spent doing field work in southern Illinois.
Planning and supervising membership campaigns was his specialty. He developed a check-testing program and established procedures for auditing milk distributors’ records. Realizing also the importance of advertising, he helped in the development of a joint advertising campaign between milk producers and distributors.
On March 4, 1934, Fred was appointed market administrator of the newly issued License No. 35 (License for Milk), St. Louis milkshed. Under the previous License No. 18, there was a six-member Milk Industry Board made up of two cooperative representatives, three handlers, and one public representative.
The major detriment to the Board was that each time a decision had to be made, Board members had to convene. Quite often decisions had to be made summarily; consequently, Fred assumed the responsibility of six men on that March day in 1934.
Times were turbulent during the early years of the License. During the 23-month duration of License’ No. 35, there were seven amendments issued – four in 1934 and three in 1935. Subsequently, on Feb. 1, 1936, Order No. 3 was put into effect for the St. Louis marketing area.
Ten weeks later, Amendment No. 1 was issued. Eventually, however, the turbulence began to subside and there were only four additional amendments issued in this interim prior to World War II.
Patriotism won out and Fred joined the U.S. Quartermaster Corp Jan. 1, 1943. He received his basic training at Camp Lee, Virginia. The Army then directed Fred to set up an office in Wilmington, N.C., to procure milk and fresh dairy products for 50 or more military installations located in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
His efforts were so fruitful he was rewarded by a much tougher assignment- to set up a similar operations on the west coast. Fred then became responsible for the procurement of milk for 170 military installations in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
On Jan. 2, 1946 Major Shipley received his Army discharge and returned to St. Louis to continue his duties as market administrator.
Fred retired July 31, 1975 at the age of 70 as the result of mandatory government retirement. He continued to consul and keep abreast of the dairy industry well into his retirement. He died in 2002.
Fred married Virginia Daly who passed away in 1977. He is survived by four sons- twins Mike, St. Louis, and Pat, Denver; Larry, Vermillion, SD, and Steve, West Plains.
Fred was nominated for the Pioneer Leadership Award by the Milk Market Administrator’s Office, Kansas City, Kans.