The late Floyd Mahan posed last year at the sign near the Farm Show pond at age 95. Mahan first put the paddleboats in the Farm Show pond in 1965. He died last week. Submitted Photo. 12/1/2022

Had Floyd Mahan not shared his whimsical idea in the 1960s, the annual Butler Farm Show would be devoid of the sight of grinning kids, teens and adults pedaling around the pond on paddleboats.

Mahan, 95, of Middlesex Township, died on Friday, but left behind a nautical legacy that will continue to delight Farm Show goers indefinitely.

Ken Metrick, a longtime Farm Show board member, said Mahan was raised on a farm on the Butler/Allegheny County border, so he hung around the Farm Show a good bit.

“But he was quite the boater,” Metrick said. “He boated up and down the Mississippi River.”

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