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Kansas Farmers Union icon dies
Published 2/28/2013 in News
By AMY BICKELSpecial to The Telegram
Former Kansas Farmers Union President Ivan Wyatt, a Chase County farmer who was instrumental in restarting the Kansas organization and a well-known advocate for family farms, died Monday.
He was 83.
Wyatt fought to keep corporate farming out of Kansas, along with "a whole myriad of issues in the 1970s, 1980s, until he retired," said Larned area farmer Tom Giessel, who served as Wyatt's vice president from 1983 to 2000. "Ivan's specialty was state issues."
In the 1950s, Giessel said, the Kansas Farmers Union's membership dropped below 5,000 — the minimum needed to be chartered under the national organization.
"He was one of them who worked hard to get the charter back from national," Giessel said.
According to a press release, Wyatt first joined the Kansas Farmers Union in the early 1960s.
He was instrumental in establishing the charter for the Chase County Farmers Union, Giessel said, which helped to build back the once-dwindling membership.
The Kansas Farmers Union became chartered again in 1973, Giessel said.
Wyatt served as vice president and lobbyist for the organization from 1973 to 1981. In 1981, he was elected president, a position he held until he retired in 2000.
Emil Mushrush, the organization's recently retired executive director, said in the release that he remembers Wyatt as a person who "worked hard and strongly believed in family farms and traditional farmers.
"He really did walk the walk, and talk the talk," Mushrush said, adding that "his No. 1 issue was keeping corporations out of agriculture, as well as fair farm prices."
Giessel said he and Wyatt worked closely together for two decades. He said Wyatt taught him a lot and gave him the opportunity to participate in state and national issues of the time.
"He turned me loose to do a lot of things," Giessel said. "I think we were an excellent team."
Wyatt also was a well-respected national leader, he said.
"He had a calm, almost subdued personality, and he was a deep thinker," Giessel said.
Funeral services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Brown-Bennett-Alexander Funeral Home, 201 Cherry St, Cottonwood Falls.
"He is going to be missed," Giessel said.
"He was one of those old-school pioneers of farm organizations who understood the value of a general farm organization."
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