In Mike's Honor

By Robert Soileau, Ph.D.

Director, LSU Ag Leadership Program

One of the unique aspects of working for Ag Leadership is the opportunity to travel to other countries to see agriculture. Our program often does a scouting trip to our international destination a year prior to the class experience.

Almost 10 years ago, I visited South Africa to prepare for the Class XIV trip. A couple of days before the flight to Johannesburg I received news that my good friend Mike Danna had fallen ill. He had already overcome cancer on two occasions, and his friends and family were deeply concerned. Mike was the public relations director for the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and a graduate of Class VIII of Ag Leadership.

Mike traveled with us on every trip since his graduation from the program. He covered stories from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Costa Rica with our Ag Leadership program. He started this blog page in December 2009 before the Class XI trip to Brazil. He did an amazing job of telling the story of our visits and highlighting the people of our program.

While I was in South Africa the news came that Mike was diagnosed with cancer and would not survive. Later that evening I received a call from Mike. He told me what our friendship meant to him and how much he enjoyed sharing the stories of our trips through this blog. He ended the conversation saying, “just know I will always be with you on the trips.” It was an emotional conversation because both of us knew it was the last time we would speak to each other.

Mike had a passion for telling the story of the hard-working people in agriculture. While some of us are good at telling that story, Mike had a gift. He treated everyone’s story in a special way. 

I still miss my dear friend, and it is important that we continue to carry on his tradition through this blog. You will hear the perspective of many different members of Class XVIII while we are on our trip to the Netherlands and Belgium. We hope you enjoy our perspectives. I know Mike will be watching.