Clifford M. Hardin

Clifford Morris Hardin (October 9, 1915 – April 4, 2010) served as United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1969 to 1971. Hardin was born near Knightstown, Indiana, to J. Alvin Hardin and Mabel (Macy) Hardin. He earned a B.S. (1937), an M.S. (1939) and a Ph.D. (1941) from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He taught Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University in Lansing from 1944 to 1948, when he became the assistant director and then director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. He became the school's Dean of Agriculture in 1953 and Chancellor of the University of Nebraska in 1954. In 1969, Hardin was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President Richard Nixon. As Secretary, he extended the food stamp...