Langdon Professorship Reflects Donor’s Passion for Marketing Innovation

He did so, he explained, because “the paper sits around (the house) for a week, and I saw how effective it was” for the business to have that much visibility.” Then director of marketing for the PET company’s dairy division – known for its PET Evaporated Milk – Langdon said he had to convince his boss to approve the $43,000 annual expenditure for the ads.

Now, just over a half-century later, marketing students in the North Carolina State University College of Management are learning how to reach audiences wherever they are in today’s real and virtual communities, using a multitude of media, thanks to advances in the Internet and related technology that allows 24-7 connectivity.

Langdon embraces that kind of innovation – in education and in practice – as reflected in the Lloyd and Madelyn Langdon Professorship in Marketing that he endowed in the NC State College of Management.

The professorship was awarded in 2010 to Dr. Stacy Wood, whose key research areas align with Langdon’s own interests: consumer innovation, new product design and adoption, and consumer response to technology advances.

From Agronomy to Dairy Marketing

Langdon, who graduated from North Carolina State University in 1940 with a bachelor’s degree in field crop science and plant breeding, advanced several innovations himself while at PET, including a new line of milk cartons and the first flip-top ice cream carton.

As PET – now a product of the J.M. Smuckers company – expanded into 37 divisions, Langdon’s division became the second largest and most profitable at the time. He himself saw a quick advance in his own career. “I had five titles in 18 months,” he said, ending with the title of president of the PET dairy division.

Langdon attributes his success at PET Dairy and other positions before and after to “a lot of good breaks,” adding, “I was never unemployed in my life.”

In his early years, he said, “We had the Depression, and there was no money. I worked on the farm, and we had it rough.” But, he noted, “The harder I worked, the luckier I got.”

His father had given him two acres on the farm to grow tobacco. That turned out to be a bad year for farming, and his were the only two acres whose crop survived. Langdon said he wanted to return the land to the family, but his father insisted that he use proceeds from the crop to pay for his first quarter’s tuition at NC State.

Langdon did enroll in the fall of 1936, and worked his way through college, including a stint as editor of the NC State Agriculturist Magazine, produced by the agriculture department in NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, while also engaged in numerous extracurricular activities.

As Langdon was completing his undergraduate studies, the nation was preparing for World War II. In September 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the U.S. conscription bill, and the draft began that October.

Although he had started his master’s degree program, with a fellowship, Langdon realized that he would not be able to finish because of the rapidly approaching war. On campus, the ROTC class of 1940 was being called to active duty on a spot basis, and the entire class of 1941 was called to active duty.

First Taste of Business: Civilian Conservation Corps

Langdon he did not know when he might be called to active duty. He was offered – and accepted – a job as a Lieutenant with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), leaving behind the fellowship for his graduate studies. His first CCC duty station was in Littleton, N.C., then Robbinsville, N.C., and finally, Jacksonville, N.C., where the CCC was beginning work on Camp Lejeune.

“During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide that would become the start of most state parks, built a network of thousands of miles of public roadways, and constructed buildings connecting the nation’s public lands,” Langdon said.

While at Robbinsville, where the camp was developing forest fire fighting methods, Langdon was in charge of food service and the canteen. That’s where he got his first taste of business.

After leaving the CCC, Langdon took a job with the Soil Conservation Service in Lexington, N.C., where he met Madelyn, his wife.

He was called up for active duty in 1942, serving in the Army Air Corps as a B-24 bombardier-navigator. He concluded his active duty with the rank of captain in 1946 but remained in the Air Force Reserve until he retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

His began his business career in 1946, when he became the first agricultural development agent for the Carolina Power & Light Company in Asheville, N.C. He later became chair of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee and led the formation of the first rural community development program in North Carolina. A story about that program was published in 1956 in the Readers Digest.

The rural development program led to the incorporation of the Asheville Agricultural Development Council, with Langdon as charter member and president. He says he learned about public relations in that position. In 1949, he left to become general manager and part owner of the Farm Supply Company in Asheville and later, operating executive of the N.C. Dairy Products Association, based in Raleigh.

In 1959, PET recruited him away to Johnson City, Tenn., to set up a marketing department for its dairy division headquartered there. That is where he developed a national reputation for his skills in packaging, distributing, advertising and merchandising.

Career Highlight: International Trade Association Meeting

The highlight of his career came in 1968, when he was selected by the American Management Association to represent the U.S. dairy products industry at the annual meeting of the International Trade Association held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.

He also was invited by Wall Street analysts to give a speech about the future of the ice cream and the dairy industry. With very few exceptions, he recalls, his predictions were accurate; as a result, he was invited two years later to speak to the group a second time.

In 1969, Langdon was named vice president of marketing for PET’s dairy division, then vice president of operations, executive vice president and general manager, and finally, president of the dairy division in 1970. He retired from PET in 1978.

Langdon served as president and CEO of the Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, and then as chairman of the board and CEO, retiring in 1984. He has been active in numerous dairy industry associations, the Johnson City chamber of commerce and other community organizations. He and his wife Madelyn moved from Florida to Southern Pines, N.C., in 1999.

Reflecting on his career, Langdon said, “You learn a lot of things through life, if you have a reasonable amount of intelligence and don’t say ‘I can’t do it’.”

Langdon is currently working on a book of his memoirs. When asked what key message he hoped to convey to others through the memoirs and this article, Langdon responded, “Don’t forget that God is in the picture in whatever you do. I’m not one of those people who wear his religion on his sleeve, but I am very religious, and I guess I would have to say that.”