Langdon S. Flowers He was ‘bread’ to be a businessman By John H. Adams The Presbyterian Layman Volume 34, Number 1 Posted January 24, 2001 Langdon S. Flowers After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Langdon S. Flowers went to California in 1946 to make his mark in the post-World War II flight industry. But Flowers didn’t become another Howard Hughes. He became a bread salesman. Family, home and a $40 weekly salary drew him back to Thomasville, Ga. He left a rented room in California and $285 a month that he was paid to do early analysis work on the four-engine DC-8 being developed by Douglas Aircraft. The bread business, founded by his father and grandfather in the 1920s and being operated after the war by his older brother, William “Bill” Flowers, became an uninterrupted and enormously successful career. Langdon Flowers is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Flowers Industries, Inc., a food company whose sales exceeded $4.2 billion in 2000. Final arrangements are under way for the sale of Flowers Industries’ largest division, Keebler, to Kellogg, but even after that transaction is settled, the corporation will employ more than 10,000 people. Flowers is a soft-spoken Southern gentleman with a deep faith in Christ and an unwavering commitment to evangelical renewal in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He has been a director of the Presbyterian Lay Committee since 1985. The Presbyterian Lay Committee’s job, he says bluntly, is to work itself out of business. By that, he means the organization will no longer have a reason to exist if true evangelical renewal occurs throughout the denomination. Flowers takes his faith to work. He often tells employees that his – and their – priorities are 1) Christ, 2) family and 3) work. He speaks similarly at First Presbyterian Church, where he has been teaching Sunday school classes for more than 50 years. Flowers says he has no regrets about abandoning a career in aeronautical engineering. Since entering the bread business, the closest connection Flowers has had to his academic preparation were the occasions he sat in the co-pilot’s seat and steered one of the corporation’s two twin-engine Mitsubishi jets. But he never got a pilot’s license. Except for his brief touchdown in the aircraft industry in California and a temporary assignment on the West Coast while he served in the Navy during World War II, Flowers has lived all of his life in Thomasville. Thomasville is where he sank his roots and his heart in his church, family, civic clubs and work. It is where he met “Bobbie” – née Margaret Powell – in kindergarten, and it was where they were married with Flowers, in his Navy whites, about to go off to war. It was Bobbie, the mother of their five children, who coaxed him back to Thomasville from California and, again, Bobbie who stayed with him every night during a three-month near-death hospital experience in Atlanta. He says the prayers of his friends enabled him to survive a major infection following heart bypass surgery. After a long therapy, Flowers is ready to play golf again. Flowers was in his sophomore year at MIT when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. By February 1942, he was a low-ranking seaman in the U.S. Navy. He was first assigned to Naval training at MIT, which enabled him to continue his education. After marriage, he became the engineering officer on the USS Belleau Wood, a small aircraft carrier in Adm. William F. “Bull” Halsey’s 3rd Fleet. Toward the end of World War II, the Belleau Wood was stationed for three months off Toyko Bay and sent its planes to attack Japanese cities. Flowers says Japanese planes attacked the carrier several times, but it never took a serious hit. The war ended after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kamikaze attacks continued for days. Flowers belongs to the school that believes the use of the atomic bomb saved millions of Allied and Japanese lives. After the war, Flowers returned to MIT to complete his master’s degree. He took the job with Douglas Aircraft and planned to move Bobbie to the West Coast when he could find suitable housing. But California was experiencing a population boom without a corresponding increase in housing, and his rented room wasn’t satisfactory for a young couple with a baby on the way. When it was time for the birth of their first daughter, Flowers took a roundabout series of flights to get to Atlanta. From there, he hitchhiked to Thomasville, arriving just in time to meet Bobbie walking out the front door on her way to the hospital. After the birth of daughter Margaret, Flowers returned to California somewhat less enthused about the aircraft industry. His brother Bill, eight years older, had been running the family bakery since the death of their father and wanted Langdon to help. But Langdon had a hard time saying yes. Then, Bobbie’s letter arrived. She wrote, somewhat flippantly, “It sure would be great if you could make up your mind [about where to live] before we move.” He called Bill that night and was soon back in Thomasville. Flowers began work in sales and advertising. While he was paid $40 a week, the company’s principal salesman made $100. Flowers had to work his way up the ladder in what was a $3 million business in 1947. He had to grow the business. Flowers instinctively took to marketing, sales and advertising. The company won a Sunbeam contract. It advertised aggressively in newspapers and on radio, as well as television a few years later. It began expanding. Then, in 1968, almost overnight, the business doubled. Flowers Industries acquired five bakeries at one time. It was a strange time to be expanding. President Richard Nixon had instituted price controls, so the company could not charge more for bread. Yet, price controls did not affect farm products — so Flowers Industries had to pay more for its ingredients. But the acquisition increased shelf space, made sales routes more efficient and gave the corporation the opportunity to increase sales. “Our goals back then were 20 percent return on equity, 10 percent on sales and 5 percent increase in profits. We exceeded all those figures. We made two plus two equal five.” In 21 years, Flowers Industries, now a public corporation on the New York Stock Exchange, went from $3 million in sales to more than $40 million. There was no slowing down. The success of the business did not change Langdon Flowers. He had taught Sunday school since he was a college student, and he continues to do so. He has served as a deacon and elder at First Presbyterian. He has been a commissioner to General Assembly. A former president of the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce, Flowers was named Thomas County’s “Man of the Year” in 1975. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of the denomination’s Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., and as a member of the board of Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. The list of charitable and professional affiliations runs several pages. But his deepest affiliation is with Christ. “Christ is my Lord and Savior, my mentor, my brother and my guide to a way of life,” Flowers wrote in a statement of faith for the Presbyterian Lay Committee. “As long as I live, I will continue to grow in my love and knowledge of Christ’s teachings.” Flowers has been named director emeritus of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.

Respond to this article

Home · News · PLC Publications · The Presbyterian Layman Online Reviews · Archives · History of the Lay Committee · Feedback · Links