Gaylon M. Lawrence (March 15, 1934 – July 10, 2012) was an American businessman and farmer. Lawrence owned more than 165,000 acres of farmland in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

and was the owner of U.S. Airconditioning Distributors, the world's largest privately owned

heating, ventilation and air conditioning Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. H ...

distributor. His family also owned five community banks and 30,000 acres of citrus farms, making his companies Florida's largest producer of fresh fruit. Lawrence graduated from Piggott Arkansas High School and from

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

in 1955 with a degree in agriculture/economics. From 1955 to 1960, he served in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Gaylon M. 1934 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American farmers American citrus farmers Farmers from Florida Iowa State University alumni People from Piggott, Arkansas