Background
Oren Lee Staley was born on May 6, 1923, in Rea, Missouri, United States. He was the son of Elmer Lee and Avis (Thompson) Staley.
Oren Lee Staley
1967
Oren Lee Staley
farmer's organization president
Oren Lee Staley was born on May 6, 1923, in Rea, Missouri, United States. He was the son of Elmer Lee and Avis (Thompson) Staley.
Oren Staley graduated as salutatorian from King City (Missouri) High School, where he was active in 4-H and was elected class president and president of the student council. He then attended Northwest Missouri State University for two years, majoring in agriculture. He received top grades but was compelled to quit college because of his father's declining health.
He served with United States Navy, 1944-1945.
Staley farmed in his hometown area, where he raised Shorthorn cattle and developed the idea that farmer should not rely on the federal government's subsidy programs to create prosperity for themselves. Instead, farmer should take direct action by forming cooperative networks to negotiate with food processing companies on prices paid to farmer for their products. He based his idea on the Capper-Volstead Act of 1922, which gave farmer the option to organize and seek collective action to market their produce. The act gave farmer an organizational exemption from antitrust penalties as long as they owned or controlled the production of the commodities involved in the bargaining process.
A series of drought years in Iowa and Missouri in the mid 1950s began to spur Staley into action, and he took a leading role in forming the NFO in 1955. Prices for farm commodities had dropped low enough to create widespread discontent among farmer who felt helpless and unable to get prices high enough to be profitable. Staley's force of personality, passion for the movement, and gifted ability as an orator cast him into the forefront of the NFO immediately, and he was elected the first president of the organization. Although elections were held annually, Staley managed to get reelected every year until 1979. By the end of his tenure, the NFO had 423 facilities (dairy, grain, livestock collection, specialties, or offices) in 26 states, mostly through the Midwest and plains states but ranging from Maine to California.
The national headquarters of the NFO were located in Corning, Iowa, in what had been an old grocery store in the business district. Although Staley continued living and farming near Whitesville, Missouri, he kept an office in the headquarters building in Corning, where he routinely conducted the business of the organization. (Although Staley never lived in Iowa, he can be considered an Iowan because of continuous work in the office in Corning.) He kept only simple furnishings in his office, and it always remained uncarpeted. He also took modest salaries for his work in the organization.
The NFO had constant financial problems over the years, but until 1979 Staley always managed to deal effectively with the problems. On one occasion, in September 1974, he raised $5.2 million at a meeting in Des Moines to prove the NFO's solvency when he was embroiled in a case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which was trying to force the NFO into receivership. In 1979, when the national board of directors balked at another of Staley's fund-raising attempts, he resigned and returned to full-time farming near Whitesville. He also established a farm real estate office in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Staley's emotional oratory almost always drew mass audiences, especially at annual conventions of the NFO. Those meetings were often stormy, with the debate going well into the night, and Oren Staley frequently faced opposition for reelection, although he always won handily. He took great pride that he was on President Richard Nixon's notorious "Enemies List."
Oren Staley married Ruth Margaret Turner on August 11, 1946. They had three children: Janice, Greg, and Cathy.
