Paul Degelman says his dad, Wilf, was never much of an office guy. “He was either on a tractor seat, in a Cat doing work or out in the shop.

Farm Equipment reached out to a few contemporaries of Degelman founder Wilf Degelman, 2024 inductee into Farm Equipment’s Shortline Legends Hall of Fame.

Despite having little formal education in design and drafting, Wilf Degelman was a confident implement innovator.

If one isn’t concerned about the hard industries’ wealth-creation, the jobs of all types, the economic contribution up and down the supply chain and manufacturers’ role as anchor-employers in the communities, one might ponder the void that could be left by their absence.