“C” is for Coker, David Robert (1870-1938)

“C” is for Coker, David Robert (1870-1938). Businessman, plant breeder, philanthropist. An illness in 1897 led Coker to withdraw from the management of J. L. Coker and Company and to focus on his first experiments with plant breeding. He saw a need not only for  better seed to provide more productive crops but also for a change in attitude from traditional to more modern methods of farming. Coker's Pedigreed Seed Company was formally organized in 1913, with David Coker as president. The company, which became a major regional seed house, developed improved types of cotton, corn, oats, tobacco, melons, and other crops that helped revitalize and change twentieth-century southern agriculture. David Robert Coker continued the family tradition of philanthropy, being a trustee and major benefactor of Coker College and of his alma mater, the University of South Carolina.