As a trade magazine editor, I spend a lot of time each year traveling to various industry trade shows, educational seminars, and company headquarters to put together articles for CropLife®. On average, I get to meet dozens of new and interesting individuals every trip I take. Many of them have remained my good friends over the years — people I call on regularly to help me out with information or just to “check in” on from time to time.
However, on a few rare occasions, I’ve met an individual only once, yet their personality, passion, and love of what they were doing for a living came across so powerfully that their story stuck with me day in, day out — even without ever hearing their voice again. These people have served to inspire me to try harder to make a difference in what I do every day on the job or kept me from getting discouraged when times were tough.
Donn Kramer was such a character.
For those who didn’t know him, Donn was a custom applicator for Farmers 4-County Cooperative. I had the chance to meet him during a road trip to Iowa in the summer of 2005. The reason for the visit was simple enough — Donn’s boss thought his tale would make a good focus in CropLife IRON magazine. Although the magazine focuses primarily on equipment, a feature called “Man & Machine” honors exceptional custom applicators by telling of their accomplishments, inside and outside of the industry.
Meeting Donn on that warm August day seemed uneventful. He was tall, in his late 50s, and dressed in blue overalls and a short-sleeve denim shirt. Over the next half-hour, I found out all I could about Donn and his life as a custom applicator and family man. It was obvious that here was a man born to be a custom applicator.
“I love being in the field away from the rat race of an office environment,” he told me with his signature smile. “I love doing a good job and keeping my grower-customers happy. Plus, it’s always fun to be driving by some of the fields I’ve ended up spraying during the season and see how they are doing now compared with how they looked when I first saw them before I ran my rig through them. That gives me a sense of accomplishment.”
At this point in his life, Donn had been a custom applicator for more than 30 years. Talking to him that day, I got the impression he would have liked to keep working for another 30 years.
But unfortunately, it was not to be. In June, Donn was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer. By September, he was gone. In tribute to his life as a custom applicator, Donn’s family contacted me to obtain a copy of one of the photos I took at our meeting to use at his funeral. It showed Donn smiling from ear to ear with his beloved Ag-Chem spray rig by his side.
“Donn was a classy guy, never complaining when he was sick and offering to help train his replacement,” says Farmers 4-County General Manager Rick Petersen. “He was one of a kind.”
In today’s world, when retailers say finding good employees is a constant challenge, losing someone as dedicated to his work as Donn is heartbreaking. Still, loving what you do, with all your heart, is a passion that will never die.
This is a life lesson we all could benefit from — just like I did from my one brief meeting with a special, unforgettable custom applicator named Donn.
