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Wershow Lecture Series
The James S. and Dorothy F. Wershow Distinguished Lecture is presented annually in honor of the contributions made to Florida Agriculture by James and Dorothy Wershow.
Dorothy F. Wershow was educated at Columbia University in New York City and moved to Ocala, Florida in the 1940's. While a mother and farm wife, she served as Director of the Alachua County Farm Bureau from 1955 to 1981. Throughout her career, Dorothy Wershow had a special concern about the problems of rural poor and the wives of farmers.
James S. Wershow received a B.A. degree in Classics and both J. D. and LLM degrees from Yale University. He moved to Florida in 1937 to engage in tung oil development. James Wershow was a farmer, a senior member of his own law firm, and a professor and legal scholar in the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. During his career, he made a number of important contributions at the Florida and national levels. In Florida, he served as President of the Alachua County Farm Bureau, State Director of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, Counsel to the Ways and Means Committee of the Florida Senate, Special Counsel to the Florida Secretary of State, Consultant to the Agriculture Committee of the Florida House of Representatives, and Agricultural Tax Consultant to the Florida Attorney General. At the national level, he served as a member of the Tobacco Committee for the Secretary of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, was named to a national committee of biotechnology experts, and was Chair of the Agricultural Tax Committee of the American Bar Association. Professor Wershow's publications covered a broad range of subject matter, some of which included ad valorem taxation, land use planning, national farm policies, agricultural zoning, farmland preservation, environmental law, water management, biotechnology, and international trade. James Wershow taught Agricultural Law in the Department of Food and Resource Economics from 1974 until his death in 1985.
For more information on this lecture series, contact olexa@ufl.edu