Mitt Landrum

Stuart Milton Landrum, Jr. was born October 16, 1944, in an Army hospital in Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas. His father, Stuart Milton Landrum, immediately gave him the nickname "Mit," a name that has stuck throughout his entire life. World War II ended within a year, and the Landrum family, like many other families at that time, moved around the country trying to find work, and Mit lived in Steamboat Springs, CO, Baxter Springs, KS, and Fredericktown, MO, by age seven.

Mit's family moved to Farmington in the summer of 1957, and that fall, Mit entered Farmington High School as a freshman in the class of 1962. Mit participated in football and track, and he became an avid amateur astronomer at this time in his life. In 1962, Mit was a Finalist at the National Science Fair held in Seattle, Washington; his project was a spectroheliograph - a device that would view the sun in the light coming from a single type of atom or molecule.

After graduation, Mit went to Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri, hoping to become an astronomer. In 1964 Mit transferred to Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in physics.

Mit graduated from Washington University in June of 1966, moved to Huntsville, AL, got married, and went to work for Brown Engineering Company in NASA's Propulsion and Vehicle Engineering Lab at Marshall Space Flight Center. These were the days of the Space Race to the Moon, and the P&VE Lab was responsible for keeping the Saturn V Moon rocket from shaking itself to pieces during launch. While at Marshall Space Flight Center, he also worked on locating an observatory in the northern Alabama area, and he wrote software for the first anti-ballistic missile defense system.

In 1970, NASA's funding was being reduced, and Mit went to work for Xerox Corporation, where he learned how to sell. He sold Xerox equipment to the medical, governmental, and educational markets in north Alabama.

In 1973 Mit's father offered him a job in the family insurance business, and Mit moved his family, now consisting of his wife and two young sons, back to Farmington. In 1985, Mit bought his father's interest in the business, and in 1999 he sold the insurance agency to First State Community Bank.

Mit met Chris in his Sunday School class, and they became a blended family on a beautiful spring day in 1988. The family was now five children two older sons of Mit and three daughters of Chris.

At the same time that the insurance agency was sold, Mit started Mitware, LLC, a software company that developed software for agencies serving disabled people. In 2019, Mit started Foundation Up, LTD, with his daughter Briana. Foundation Up, LTD. rehabs and sells houses in the St. Louis area. In 2022 Mit retired from the software business.

Mit's life has been profoundly affected by an event that took place when he was in second grade in Fredericktown, MO. On a trip to a Cardinal baseball game in St. Louis, Mit saw a young disabled man trying to sell pencils on a street corner in downtown St. Louis. It occurred to Mit that the young legless man may have been a soldier in World War II who had come home. The desperation on that young man's face as he tried in vain to sell pencils to smartly dressed people who passed without even looking at him was a scene that was burned into Mit's memory, and Mit decided right then that he would try to help people if he could. Years later, while working for Xerox, Mit decided to divide his life into two main channels; he would work to support his family, but he would also spend a significant amount of time working in the non-profit world.

In 1972 Mit participated in a United Way project in Huntsville, Al, and in 1974 Mit tried to get a grant for a sewer system for Leadwood, MO, where he owned a small insurance agency. A few years later, in 1978, Mit joined the Farmington Chamber of Commerce board of directors, and in 1979, he became President of the Chamber of Commerce Board. Mit was Chamber President for two years, and during that time, the Chamber of Commerce was able to get Farmington's first viable industrial park on the west side of highway 67. The Chamber started Country Days to pay for the new industrial park, and the Chamber got the brick-paver sidewalks done in downtown Farmington, the first downtown improvement project in many years.

In 1980 Mit was asked to join the Board of Directors of First State Bank (later to become First State Community Bank). He is currently the longest-serving board member of the bank.

The City of Farmington asked Mit to form the Farmington Industrial Development Authority in 1981, and he led that organization for over twenty years. During that time, the Farmington IDA filled up the new industrial park and started an additional industrial park on the east side of highway 67.

Mit helped start the jail ministry of the First Baptist Church of Farmington in 1981 and served as its leader until 1987. In 1984 Mit joined the Board of the Presbyterian Children's Home, and he served as Chairman of the Board of that organization for seven years. Mit joined the board of the LIFE Center for Independent Living in Farmington in 1997, and he is still active with LIFE Center today. LIFE Center works with disabled people to help them live independently in their homes.

In 2008 Mit was elected to the Farmington City Council, and in 2009 he was elected Mayor of Farmington. Mit served as Mayor of Farmington until April of 2017. During his time as Mayor, the City built a new firehouse, a new library, a new maintenance facility for City vehicles, a new warehouse for utility supplies, improved the police department headquarters, added the splash pad to the water park, and started programs to pave the streets of Farmington and solve water drainage problems that plagued the people of Farmington for years. The City also established ordinances to protect the historic downtown area, and it set up a tourism board to market the City outside.

In 2018 Mit became a Trustee for Mineral Area College, a position he still holds today. Mit has supported every school bond issue for the R7 District since he moved back to Farmington in 1973.

The decision Mit made in 1952 to try to help other people has no expiration; Mit teaches an adult Sunday School class in his church, where he is currently chairman of the Deacons, and he remains on several boards. He is planning on running again for Mayor in 2025.

Since retirement Mit and his wife Chris enjoy spending more time with their children Stuart (Emi), Michael (Andrea), Jessica, and Briana (David) and grandchildren Grace, Emily, Kai, and Miya Landrum; Evie and Ruby Dietrich; and Jude, Finn, and Beck Saunders.