Flowers' Former Chairman of the Board and Baking Industry Leader Langdon Strong Flowers Passes Away

THOMASVILLE, Ga., June 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Langdon Strong Flowers, whose integrity, vision, and people strengths helped shape and define Flowers Foods and its predecessor companies, Flowers Baking Company and Flowers Industries, for 60 years, passed away this morning in Thomasville. Mr. Flowers was 85.

"Our company has lost a great advisor, our nation one of its finest citizens, and our community its greatest champion," said George E. Deese, Flowers Foods' Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President. "Mr. Flowers always offered appreciation for a job well done and words of encouragement to those he met. He will be greatly missed by all of us at Flowers."

Mr. Flowers' full-time career with the company that bears his name started in 1947. He first worked in the sales department, serving in all positions of leadership. He became President and Chief Operating Officer in 1965, a member of the Board of Directors when the company listed publicly in 1968, Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer in 1976, and Chairman of the Board of Directors in 1981. Mr. Flowers retired in 1985 with the title of Retired Chairman of the Board and he continued to serve as a member of Flowers' Board of Directors until 2004 when he was named Honorary Director.

Mr. Flowers, along with his brother William Howard Flowers, Jr. and the company's senior leadership team, directed the company's growth from a small baking company into one of the largest baked foods enterprises in the country. Today, Flowers Foods' annual sales are approaching $2 billion and its market capitalization is just over $2 billion.

A 1944 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Mr. Flowers enlisted in the United States Navy shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He completed his college education on the V-12 program. Upon graduation, he attended Midshipman's School at Notre Dame and received his commission as Ensign. His active service during World War II was aboard the aircraft carrier "Belleau Wood" as Engineering Officer for Air Group 31. At the war's end, Mr. Flowers returned to MIT where he earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. He then worked for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, Calif., as part of the aeronautical design team.

During his career, Mr. Flowers served the baking industry in other capacities, including Chairman of the Board of Southern Bakers Association, American Bakers Association, and American Institute of Baking, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Manufacturers. He also served on the Board of Directors for American Heritage Life Insurance Company, Georgia Power Company, Business and Industry Political Action Committee, and the Georgia Council on Economic Education. Mr. Flowers also was active in politics, serving in a leadership role for U.S. President Ronald Reagan's successful 1984 re-election campaign, as a presidential elector from Georgia, and in leadership roles in other campaigns as well.

Married for almost 60 years to his childhood sweetheart, Margaret (Bobbie) Clisby Powell, she preceded him in death in 2004. Mr. and Mrs. Flowers' 5 children survive, as do 17 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Mr. Flowers also was preceded in death by his brother William Howard Flowers, Jr. and sisters Margaret Flowers Rogers, Flewellyn Flowers Waidner, and Claire Flowers Varnedoe.

Headquartered in Thomasville, Ga., Flowers Foods is one of the nation's leading producers and marketers of packaged bakery foods for retail and foodservice customers. Flowers operates 36 bakeries that produce a wide range of bakery products marketed in the Southeast, Southwest, and mid-Atlantic regions via an extensive direct-store-delivery network and nationwide through other delivery systems. Among the company's top brands are Nature's Own, Cobblestone Mill, BlueBird, and Mrs. Freshley's. For more information, visit http://www.flowersfoods.com/.