Gary Schieffer retires following long career at Osmond Farm Supply
OSMOND — After almost 40 years with the company, Gary Schieffer has retired from his job with Osmond Farm Supply.
On March 1, 1983, Gary began his career at Osmond Farm Supply when the opportunity came about to join this new company.
According to Gary, this is how it came about, “In March of 1982, I decided that I was an alcoholic, and I had issues, so I went to a treatment center and they gave me a lot of good tools, and I started going to 12-step meetings. And at one of these meetings, a guy by the name of Art was there, and at that time, after I sobered up, I was making alfalfa pellets in Wausa.”
Art Hunke heard Gary speaking at one of the meetings, and he told Gary that he had some friends who had just bought a place in Osmond, and “it was a sleeping giant.” And Art asked Gary to come and work for the company.
That was February, and he resigned from where he was working, and the family moved here April 1.
“I remember Art struggling to sober up after I got here, but eventually he did, and it was great.”
And Gary’s family grew. He and wife Pam had son Nathan, who was 2 years old when they moved to Osmond. And in 1984, son Nick came along. Then in 1986, the family moved to his present house.
“There were some opportunities over the years, I guess, to move on to different places, but Osmond just felt like home,” he said. “The people were so good to us, and so accepting. I was touched by the goodness of the people.”
Among the first customers he remembers meeting was Mike Morfeld. “And I remember Nyla Kuhl was working at the bowling alley. That was the first place I ate breakfast here. They served meals there at that time. And she was such a nice lady, very welcoming. All the people were very welcoming. They didn’t care what I did in the past. They just accepted my family and were good to them. And Art and Joyce were good to me, good to us. And it just grew, and it became home.”
The business and working with the people, and learning the feed business, and learning to sell, it was a good learning experience, Gary said. In the beginning, Gary ground feed, and did a little bit of selling, and then in 1985, Art sent Gary to a school in St. Louis, to learn how to be a farm consultant. So he came back and did that. Then the business had another person who was grinding feed and another who was hauling fuel.
Gary’s job was outside sales and assistant manager, and it just grew from there, he said. The business grew, but there were some tough times in the mid-1980s, he remembers, “The farm crisis was awful. But we worked through it!” And slowly but surely, the business grew.
And in 1983 also, the company took the old filling station apart and they made a mini mart out of it. “I remember tearing the guts out of that, and making it a mini mart. And that grew too!”
Everything just kept growing: they got into the fertilizer business, the chemical business, the seed corn business.
“It’s amazing how it has changed over the years,” he commented. Eventually, in 2001, the mini mart was moved to its present location, and then the motel came about.
Why retire now? In 2023, it would be an even number, 40 years. So why did Gary make the decision to retire at this time?
“Well, I’m engaged to a dear, sweet lady from Randolph, Betty Greiner,” he began. “That was part of my decision. And my granddaughters were part of that decision. It was just..... what’s the best word to use? I wasn’t as sharp as I used to be. Maybe that’s the best way to put it. And I didn’t have the energy I used to have. In the past, I could go, go, go all day long. The energy at 73, going on 74, it was depleted a little bit!”
He added that he has family commitments now. He and Betty will be married on July 1 of this year, and then he will be moving to Betty’s house in Randolph.
“It’s hard. It was a really, really tough decision,” he said. “Today was the first day I was by myself, and I just had to really think about it, but I’m okay with the decision. I’m glad I did.
“Again, the Farm Supply gave me such an opportunity to fall in love with the community, and they did the same to me. I was an EMT from 1987 to 2017 and, again, my skills — I can still do it, but it was time to be done. Those young people knew more; I knew the old school stuff, but what they could do was amazing, and EMS has changed, and it was hard to keep up with that. But I miss it. I will miss the Farm Supply. I will miss the contact with the people. A lot of nice people came and wished me a happy retirement. I was very touched by that.
“Art taught me a lot. He died in 2003, and that’s when I took over managing the Farm Supply. So I’ve been doing that for 19 years. And the boys have been very good to me. They’ve been good people to work with. They cared about me, and we made it work!”
As far as his plans for retirement, he said he’s going to help the Farm Supply out a little bit and do some part-time work, do some trucking for them.
“And we’re going to do some traveling,” he continued, “We have a house to fix up in Randolph. It’s a house that was built in the 1970s, but we’re going to do some remodeling. I need to keep busy; I can’t sit still. I’d drive myself nuts and probably Betty nuts! So there are some opportunities out there for some part-time work. So I’m going to pursue those, but we’re going to do some traveling.”
His and Betty’s hobby is visiting Catholic churches, Gary said. They have visited 83 churches so far — in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota, Kansas, Missouri and Indiana. They keep track of where they’ve been, “Amazing, beautiful churches!” Gary commented, “And it’s crazy, but of all the churches we’ve visited, in the top five, is our own.”
Taking over Gary’s position as manager at Osmond Farm Supply will be Mike Johnson. “A good guy!” Gary said. “A gentle giant!” Two of the original owners still own the company, Gary said: Kent Gansebom and Paul Koehler. Other employees of the company are Briana Olson and Dave Schoenauer.
Mike noted that, “You know, the thing about Gary, he dedicated the last 39 years of his life to this place. He took his job seriously here. And I’m glad he stuck around for three months to teach me some of this stuff. I mean, I come in here blind, because things have changed a lot since I’ve been around a lot of this stuff, both the ag supply and the livestock part of it. But Gary has said if I have any questions, he’ll be glad to help me out. Gary’s made a lot of friends around here, and he’s a very caring person. He had a lot of tragedies in his life, but he still looks at things in a positive way. His faith is very much a part of his life.”
Briana commented on Gary’s leaving, saying “I was fortunate to get to work with Gary for 10 years at the Osmond Farm Supply. He will be missed by me and alot of others.”
Gary on his last day at Osmond Farm Supply, saying, “It’s hard. I will miss this. There are so many good people. You know, when Nick died, I couldn’t believe what this community did for us. And when Pam got sick, they were there and they had this huge fund-raiser for us. The kindness of this community is amazing! When someone is in trouble, they help. And they’ve done that ever since I walked in the door. I love it here! I will miss it!”
