Arizona Farming – Ranching Hall of Fame
Honorees for 2009

Ernest Douglas
October 20, 1888 – November 20, 1970

Ernest Douglas was born on a Gila Bend homestead in a tent that belonged to his parents on October 20, 1888. The family later moved to Phoenix because there were not enough children in the Gila Bend district to have a school. There Ernie was seized by the consuming ambition to become a newspaper carrier when he learned they made $5.00 a month. His mother loaned him the money to buy the bicycle and thus equipped he applied at the Phoenix Gazette and was in journalism at age fifteen. After graduation from high school he was promoted from carrier to circulation manager and soon was a full-time employee. When a reporter quit Ernie was thrown into the breach, beginning a career that would last a lifetime. He was not only a reporter for the Phoenix Gazette, but also for the Arizona Republican, the Arizona Democrat and a stringer for the LA Examiner and the El Paso Herald.

Ernie was drafted as the editor of the seven-year-old Arizona Producer, the forerunner of what later became the Arizona Farmer-Ranchman magazine in 1929. He tried to retire from what finally evolved into the Arizona Farmer-Ranchman, but was never successful. He continued to be an “advisor” until his death in 1975. For many decades, his weekly production of agricultural copy, “If it didn’t happen in Arizona, it didn’t happen”, his editorials and his Foxtail Johnson Objects was prodigious, and his casual writing style was incomparable. He always said that his goal was to work hard, think soundly, influence unselfishly, and live honorably.

Mildred and Norman Hale

Hale Farm is a classic story of an American family business. Returning to Tolleson, Arizona after World War II the young family purchased five acres and two cows to start their farm on 99th Avenue and Broadway. Having three young children at the time, they toiled long and hard. The farmhouse had no indoor plumbing, and drinking water was brought in from an outside well. Both Norman and Mildred worked extra jobs in Tolleson at the packing shed and ice plant.

With their savings, the young couple purchased an 80 acre farm and 50 cows on 115th Avenue and Southern. They later moved to their permanent location in the early 60’s, farming 450 acres of hay and grain crops and milking 120 head of Holsteins, and adding three more children to the family. Although Norman passed away in 1989, Mildred proudly continues to be a contributor to Arizona Agriculture. The family farm still stands on 107th Avenue and lower Buckeye Road, producing hay and grain crops. Hale Farm has been a successful farm for 68 years and hopes to continue to be in the farming business as long as it can.

GERTIE AND BILL HICKMAN

The saying from a tiny acorn a mighty oak tree grew could easily apply to Hickman’s Egg Ranch. When Bill and Gertie were married in 1957 Bill had a job at the local Standard station but he had a dream of going into the egg business. He asked Gertie if she would be willing to help. The couple bought 500 baby chicks and built their first chicken house. As the business grew they partnered with Bill’s mother, a win/win situation for both.

By 1993 Hickman’s was the only Arizona egg producer with chickens and a USDA inspected processing plant. Today with the growth of the company the eggs are marketed in different ways. Packaged and shipped across the country; machine broken, pasteurized then frozen or sold as liquid eggs; and boiled, peeled and packaged in ten and twenty pound containers for hotel and restaurants. The company received the Arizona Farm Bureau’s Farmer of the award in 2008.

Today Bill and Gertie have basically retired, leaving the operation of the company to their children. Glen is president of the company; Billy is General Manager and Vice President, Clint is in charge of Sales and Sharman works with him. But as in any family when something goes wrong no matter when everyone, even the grandkids lend a hand. Gertie said, “I think the grandchildren will be involved in the business in some capacity, there’s room for everyone to be employed as the company grows.”

Orval Knox

Orval was born on February 8, 1907 on the family farm located at Baseline and Dobson Roads in the Arizona Territory. When he was six, he moved with his parents Thompson Alexander and Martha James Knox to Chandler where he spent the rest of his life. He was the second of what is now four generations of the Knox family to farm in Chandler.

Education was important to the Knox family. His father had died in the typhoid epidemic when Orval was fourteen, leaving his mother with four children to raise. Even though life was hard she insisted that he finish his schooling. Orval graduated from Chandler High School in 1924. Although he was needed on the farm, his mother persuaded him to attend the University of Arizona to study agriculture. Majoring in animal husbandry, Orval graduated in 1928. He was a member of the U of A first Intercollegiate Livestock Judging Team,

Not only was he a successful farmer, Orval, gave freely of his time and expertise to organizations important to agriculture. He worked to develop a cooperative marketing agreement among Arizona cotton producers and Calcot Ltd, the world’s largest cotton marketing co-op in California. To interest Calcot, Arizona growers had to guarantee a first-year minimum of 10,000 bales, ten-percent of the entire states’ crop. In October 1955, when the harvest began, Arizona had no members but Knox, with the aid of a farmer pilot traveled the state talking, “wherever we could get four or five growers together”, he said. By harvest end eighteen growers had joined Calcot and produced 40,000 bales of Arizona cotton for the co-op to market.

Earl Petznick

Earl Petznick was born in Chicago and his family moved to Phoenix in 1948. He went to North High School for one year and then transferred to Phoenix Christian. His college years were divided between Westmount College in California and Grand Canyon College. “My major was literature” Earl says, “I had no idea what I planned to do with a degree in literature, but I enjoyed it very much. I met my wife, Pat Dryer, at Grand Canyon College in 1960. Soon after that I started working for her father, Olen Dryer, at his Spur Feed Lot in Sun City. I began learning the business by building fences on the various feedlots, trading hay and grain and running a feed mill.”

Earl Petznick assumed the management of the Northside Hay Company in 1979, the year Olen Dryer died. In the fall of 1981 Southwest Beef Company, the major, and soon to be sole, slaughter facility in the State closed its doors. Earl, realizing that this would put an end to cattle feeding operations in Arizona, worked with a group to purchase and operate this facility. In March of 1982 Northside and others commenced operation of Sun Land Beef Co. Earl stayed active in the management of the Sun Land operation until it was sold in the fall of 1996.

Today, Northside specializes in the purchase and sale of all baled products and services and feed needs of dairies, feedlots, ranchers, stables and horse owners nationwide. Petznick also developed the Sacate Pellet Mills located in Laveen next to Northside. Sacate has produced premium horse feed since 1986 and ships nationwide. The family feeding operation has now grown from 20,000 head to over 170,000 at the Maricopa-based Pinal Feeding Company. Today Earl is semi-retired as his two sons manage the family business. With four Petznick grandchildren growing up, it’s likely a fourth generation will carry on the family business.

Marvin Richard Morrison
February 5, 2007

Marvin Richard Morrison was a native Arizonan for one reason. His father had followed the Nichols family from Oklahoma in 1916 because he wanted to marry their daughter and she was too young. The Nichols family had moved to Arizona because of the newly created Roosevelt Dam. Marvin returned from WWII and started a farming business, known as Morrison Brothers Ranch, with his brother, Kenneth in 1946. The business eventually grew to include a 2,650-acre cotton farm, the Arizona Dairy Co. in southeast Mesa, and the Windmill Ranch in Coconino and Yavapai Counties. Marvin was deeply committed to the agricultural community and was twice recognized as Man of the Year in Arizona Agriculture.

Marvin had a passion for education. He had started in Music and was a quite talented violinist, as well as with several other instruments. Because his undergraduate experience at University of Redlands was interrupted by WWII and years passed during the growth stage of his businesses, it was not until 1984 that Marvin was able to finish an undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness from Arizona State University. He enjoyed the experience so much that he continued in school and completed a Master of Science in 1986. In the meantime, he developed a passion for assisting ASU in the development of new programs. He and his wife June endowed the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at ASU in 1982 and in 1997 initiated additional gifts for both the Institute and the School of Agribusiness at ASU Polytechnic, now renamed the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness.

Miguel A. Torres

The Miguel Torres story began in a small ranching community in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico where he was born. By the age of eight he was helping his grandmother on her ranch in the mountains. “We would go there for weeks helping her make cheese, and doing anything on the farm that she needed. By the time I came to the America I was already plowing behind a pair of mules.

Miguel began school in America at age 12. “ I spoke no English, there were no ESL teachers, but I had three friends that were bilingual and I learned a lot from them. By the end of the year we were all communicating,” said Miguel. At the end of his sophomore year he dropped out of school and began working for Bruce Church to help the family. He had tried working at a gas station because his friends did, but did not make enough money. Offered a job driving one of the cotton pickers at the Bruce Church farm at a higher wage then he made at the station brought him back to agriculture. In 1970 Miguel moved to Fresh Pick where his father worked. Over the next 20 years he moved up through the ranks until he was managing the farm for the company.

In 1989, Miguel cashed in his pension plan. This was enough to lease land from the Colorado River Indian Tribes and lease some equipment. This was a big step. The company had supplied Miguel with a home, utilities and a vehicle to drive but he believed in his ability to develop a productive farm. From the original 67 acres of leased land he now farms 1,450 aces and another 1,500 acres of custom farming. Miguel grows alfalfa which sells to buyers and feed stores in the Kingman area. Raising cattle is a new enterprise for Torres. A few Black Angus and other breeds are more like relaxation. “Some times, I just like to go out there and look at them, “ says Miguel, “someone else takes care of them.”

Miguel also gives time to the community serving on the La Paz County Farm Bureau Board for many years and supporting the local FFA chapter. He currently volunteers his time, and equipment to the completion of the new county fair grounds in Parker South. Miguel has lived the American Dream, since coming to the U.S. at nine years old; he became a citizen, started his own business, supports his family and makes a difference in the community.

R. Keith Walden
July 4, 1913 – March 11, 2002

R. Keith Walden was born in Santa Paula, California, the oldest of five children of Arthur Frisbie and Eva Walden. Keith’s father was a banker who owned a citrus farm of his own, and partnered with a brother on a fruit and vegetable farm in the rich San Fernando Valley. Keith helped on the farm from a young age. At 16 he spent the entire year in bed with polio, an experience, which, he said, gave him time to read and dream. From these humble beginnings Keith grew into an innovative and entrepreneurial agriculturalist.

In 1937 Keith developed a 10-acre nursery growing young citrus trees. He managed the Ford-Craig Ranch during World War II, saving his money to purchase 960 acres in the Tulare Lake Bed, selling off half to pay his debt. Keith began to farm cotton in California. He also rotated sugar beets, potatoes and grains with the cotton, improving soil conditions and therefore yields per acre.

Concerned that land was becoming too expensive to farm profitably in California, he sought advise from Sterling Hebbard in Yuma and Kemper Marley in the Salt River Valley. In 1946 he formed Farmers Investment Co. (FICO). With additional capital from Color Henry Crown of Chicago, Keith purchased the 10,000 Continental Farm in the Santa Cruz Valley south of Tucson in 1949, and moved his wife and two sons Richard and Thomas to Continental. To supervise his dispersed and growing holdings, Keith bought a Cessna 140 airplane, subject to the seller getting him certified to fly.

His son Dick Walden remembers, “Dad was concerned that names like Dupont and Union Carbide were heavily invested in synthetic fibers which might replace much of the market for cotton so he began to experiment with different corps. He tried all the stone fruits, all of the tree nuts and a dozen varieties of grapes. The crops that thrived the best were grapes and pecans. He chose pecans over grapes because they have a longer window of harvest and can be harvested by machine”. In 1965, Keith began planting pecans in the Santa Cruz Valley and Maricopa, Arizona. Today, in Arizona and Albany, Georgia, FICO operates the Today, the largest irrigated pecan orchard in the world, processing about 10% of the nation’s crop.

Howard Wuertz

Howard Wuertz is the youngest of the four sons of Fred and Eunice Wuertz, who relocated from South Dakota to Arizona in October 1929 arriving on Columbus Day. They moved on to the farm in Coolidge with no buildings, just a pump, a well and water. It had been farmed for just one year.

Howard attended the University of Arizona graduating in January of 1951 with a degree in Agricultural Engineering. Howard and his brother, Verne, had farmed land rented from their father in ’47, 48, and ’49 as a partnership. They would go to school one semester and then farm one semester.

In 1976 Howard began his first tests using drip irrigation. He learned with the first 12 acres of sub-surface drip that instead of making three bales to the acre, they made 4.7 bales of cotton to the acre and used half the water. With that he began putting in several acres every year. By 1985 he had 2,500 acres of land under sub-surface drip. The farm now produces alfalfa, cotton, Milo, maize, corn, and watermelons.

“We don’t disk it or rotate it or anything of the sort,” he said. “We do minimum tillage.” To make the system permanent and maintain operation of the system, Howard then designed and assembled machinery specifically to implement and maintain operation of sub-surface drip irrigation. He currently has five U. S. Patents. His latest invention is a conveyor system to move watermelons from the field to the trailer, minimizing manual labor.