Last year, we announced a new recognition program to chronicle North America’s finest dealer professionals. With each passing year, more leaders leave us (including one the same week as his selection in Derek Stimson), and the Farm Equipment team agreed it was time to document the stories of our industry’s “greats” — before they were relegated merely to oral history, lore and tribal knowledge.
Thus, the inaugural Farm Equipment Dealer Hall of Fame (HOF) has the following mission … To honor the dealer heroes of our farm equipment industry … Promote integrity, innovation and independence … Celebrate excellence and achievement … Ensure that the industry’s present and future connects to the past.
The 2024 Inaugural Farm Equipment Dealer Hall of Famers are:
Ronald D. Offutt, RDO Equipment
Paul Wallem, Wallem International & Central Sands International
David Meyer & Peter Christianson Titan Machinery
Ferenc Rosztoczy & Tom Rosztoczy, Stotz Equipment
Earl Livingston, Livingston Machinery (Parallel Ag)
Derek Stimson, Rocky Mountain Equipment
Many of today’s Farm Equipment subscribers wouldn’t be able to recall how unsophisticated the business once was, just how many major-line OEMs once existed and the enormous competition that crowded every small town (and resulted in what dealers dubbed the “knocking of heads”). And of course, few of your staff were around for the darkest chapter (1980s) that all were called on to endure — with prayer ever-present for themselves, their business and their customers.
As economist Alan Blinder said at the 1988 Nobel Prize ceremony, “The ideas here seem obvious with the passage of time. But someone had to think of it first.”
True, many pioneered what today is commonplace. Yet each of the HOFers placed a foundation brick in the structure of today’s and tomorrow’s successful farm equipment dealership.
The lasting impact of paying homage to the past; to understand the conditions, factors and decisions that can help one arrive at a better future.
This program differs from our annual Dealership of the Year (DOY) — now in its 20th year. While the DOY program honors an entire company at a distinct point in time, the Dealer HOF celebrates an individual’s impact and influence on an industry that they left in better shape than they found it. Consider it our industry’s version of “Profiles in Leadership.”
The inaugural class includes a mix of the past and present. The Dealer HOF will be part of a permanent traveling exhibit each year, starting at the 10th annual Farm Equipment Dealership Minds Summit this August in Madison, Wis.
Additional context on the inductees appears online with a dedicated URL you’ll find on the pages that follow. Please share your own thoughts, memories and anecdotes on these Hall of Famers, which we’ll see are shared with the recipients, companies and families in another special project we’re completing shortly.
