Charles Holman (1886 - 1971)

Inducted: 1985

Charles Holman spent 43 years serving farm cooperative organizations. He helped organize and became secretary of the National Milk Producers Federation in 1917, and it was his speech at the World’s Dairy Congress of 1923 that led to the formation of the American Institute of Cooperation. Holman played a key role in the passage of the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916, which established the Federal Land Banks, and was instrumental in the drafting and passage of the Capper Volstead Act of 1922, the enabling legislation for farm cooperatives. Holman was an organizer of the National Council of Farmers’ Cooperative Marketing Association in 1924, and he was a prime mover in setting up the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, formed in 1929.