Scunthorpe United Football Club is sad to learn Club President John Godfrey CBE has passed away at the age of 67.
John was a director of the Iron for ten years between 1994 and 2004 before taking on the role of President in 2007.Iron Chairman Peter Swann commented: "We're all devastated at the loss of our close friend John Godfrey.
"Since I have been chairman of this football club, John has always been a tower of strength and inspiration at all times.
"Our thoughts go out to his wife Phoebe, his family, friends and all that knew John. He will be sadly missed by us all."
John qualified as a chartered accountant in 1971 before returning to the family farming business, which went on to be managed by John and his brother Jim, and more recently his nephews Alexander and Sam.
The business, which has pig enterprises totalling 6,500 sows, farms land in an area that stretches from the Wash to north of the Humber. In 1998 he was awarded the CBE for services to agriculture.
He chaired the British Pig Association, for which he was awarded the first ever lifetime fellowship by the National Pig Association (NPA) in August 2015, and was also the key driver in creating English agriculture's first fully integrated farm assurance scheme, covering not only pig production on-farm but also feed, transport and processing.
He negotiated the English pig industry's classical swine fever welfare disposal scheme in 2002, which was a first in the United Kingdom, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies in 2004. In 2007 he was president of Lincolnshire Agricultural Society.
A freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farmers, John was also High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 2010 and 2011. At the time of John’s passing, he was Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire.
He was appointed to the board of the University of Lincoln in 2002 having previously been on the board of Lincolnshire Agricultural College at Riseholme. John was awarded an honorary doctorate at University of Lincoln within a graduation ceremony in Lincoln Cathedral in 2009.
Despite all this success, he remained a loyal, lifelong supporter of the Iron and, during Steve Wharton's time as Chairman, was the club's second biggest shareholder.
The thoughts of everybody at Scunthorpe United Football Club are with his family at this time.
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