Released: March 05, 2004

NOTE: Digital photographs are available with this story. To obtain the pictures in an appropriate format, please contact Pat Melgares at 785-532-1160 or send email to melgares@oznet.ksu.edu.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Nine Kansans have been recognized as Leaders of the Year by the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development.

The Leaders of the Year were selected from among those featured in 2003 on the Kansas Profiles radio program, produced by the Huck Boyd Institute and distributed to Kansas radio stations.

This year’s winners are:

* Deb and Bill Brown, Soldier – Robbers are welcome – but only if they are in costume – at Deb and Bill Brown’s business in this small town northwest of Topeka. The Browns operate the Red Rock Guest Ranch, where they raise cows, serve patrons at their Bed and Breakfast, and host a western-themed chuckwagon dinner complete with Old West gun fights and entertainment. Though 2003 was the Browns first year in business, they’re already drawing 100 people to dinner on Saturday nights – in a town where the total population is 126. They served about 4,000 customers in their first year.

* Jack Lindquist, Manhattan – Lindquist is the president of the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership (KARL) program, which has provided training to Kansans since 1990. The two-year leadership program gives participants 600 hours of training, including several in-state trips, a national tour to Washington, D.C. and one international study tour. Lindquist is the only president in the history of the program. His vision has helped provide leadership training to many Kansans, from small producers to leaders of several of the state’s top farm organizations.

* Roger and Sue Pine, Lawrence – Roger and Sue Pine have a turf issue that they’re not afraid to talk about. Their business, Pine Family Farms, grows acres of corn and soybeans, but since the mid-1990s, they’ve also become leaders in Kansas for selling quality turfgrass. Among many customers, the Pines have provided turfgrass for several universities, the Kansas Speedway, community athletic fields, and golf courses in Manhattan (Colbert Hills) and the Lake of the Ozarks area. Pine Family Farms is located northeast of Lawrence off Interstate 70 Highway.

* Chuck Comeau, Plainville – Chuck Comeau has brought customers from around the world to his hometown of 2,000 people. He owns and operates Dessin Fournir, an upscale furniture business that has served designers for such celebrities as Elton John, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Mel Gibson, Paul Hogan, and Arnold Schwartzenegger. The business is an off-shoot of his wife Shirley’s retail store in Plainville (the Pineapple Post), but has since grown to include 15 showrooms from New York to San Francisco. The couple also operates C S Post General Store in Hays. The Plainville business employs 107 people; Chuck operates a manufacturing facility in Los Angeles from his office in Plainville.

* Chris and Misty Schultz, Wamego – The Schultz’ have turned a near-tragedy for their daughter into a fruitful family business. In 2001, the couple’s youngest daughter was severely burned on her face during a public fireworks accident. During the recovery period, doctors told the family the young girl would need to have liquid benadryl and cortizone cream every day for the rest of her life. Through conversations with doctors, the Schultz’ began developing their own lotions with ingredients that would help their daughter. They’ve since developed a line of bath and body products that not only have helped their daughter’s injuries heal, but according to Misty, have “left my hands silky smooth, too.” Until recently opening a retail business in Wamego, Curio’s Bath and Body, the Schultz’ had been selling their products from their home to customers in Kansas and surrounding states.

* Don McNeal, Council Grove – In 1936, Don McNeal took his journalism degree from Kansas State University to a newspaper job in Council Grove – for $15 a week. And even though he left for short stints, McNeal’s love affair with the Council Grove Republican never faded. McNeal and his son, Craig, have maintained the daily newspaper over all these years; Council Grove is believed to be the smallest town in Kansas with a daily newspaper. Says one local business owner: “It’s a gift that the McNeals have given to the community, because without the family’s dedication to the paper, the community wouldn’t be what it is today.”

“We are pleased to honor these outstanding Kansans,” said Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd Institute for Rural Development, and host of Kansas Profiles. “There are thousands of these people across the state: volunteers, entrepreneurs [who are] unheralded, unsung but who care enough to make the world around them a better place. Each day, in countless ways, big and small, they are making a difference at the grass roots level.”

The Huck Boyd Institute is a public-private partnership between Kansas State University and the Huck Boyd Foundation. The institute has its headquarters at K-State; the foundation’s office is at the Huck Boyd Community Center in Phillipsburg, Kan.

McDill “Huck” Boyd was a long-time Kansas newspaper publisher, state and national leader, and advocate for rural America. The institute’s mission is to help rural people help themselves. The foundation sponsors the institute and the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media, located in K-State’s A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Pat Melgares,
melgares@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News