About Fred Myers
Muhammad Ali said, "If you did it, it ain't boastin'."
So I'm going to tell you what I've done. Even if you've been around me for a long time, you may be surprised by some dimensions of my professional life.
I grew up in Hillisburg, Indiana, a farming community about 40 miles north of Indianapolis. Dad ran a country store and Mom taught school. I got a lot of farm experience on my grandad's and uncle's farms a couple of miles away, even to the point of being a water boy for a steam driven thresher.
I entered Purdue University in 1950 as an agronomy major. Two years later, I was drafted to serve in the military during the Korean War. By a Colonel's toss of a coin, I stayed stateside. I re-entered Purdue in the fall of 1954. I did, however, change my major from agronomy to general agriculture.
But at the end of my next to last semester before graduation, I walked into the Dean's office. He became alarmed when I told him I had decided not to do what I had been trained to do. Anxiously, he asked me what I had decided to do instead. I told him I had a gut feeling I wanted to become an agricultural journalist.
I had done no writing except that required in ordinary course work. He warned me that without any journalism training or experience, my job chances ranged from slim to none. He promised, however, to do all he could for me.
Because of him, Fred Jones, editor of the Indiana Farmers Guide, agreed to hire me as field editor. The magazine was a bi-weekly tabloid magazine of 100,000 circulation that competed with Prairie Farmer. He cautioned me, however, that my first six months would be a trial period. If I wasn't producing, I would be out on the street. I agreed and after graduating and getting married, I reported for work on July 8, 1957.
My job was to travel the state and get stories for the magazine. Then Fred said I also needed to take pictures. With that, he thrust a Graflex 4X5 camera in my hand, gave me a 15-minute lesson on how to use it, and I was on my own. As with writing, I had no real photographic experience.
In two days, I had been handed the responsibility to learn to write and photograph. The learning curves on both weren't curves at all. They went straight up. The next week, I hit the road to get my first story. It concerned farmer experiences in using crown vetch for erosion control.
One morning a couple of months later, Fred stopped by my desk and smiled. "Fred, forget about that six month trial period. It's working." To this day, I have never had any formal classroom training in either writing or photography.
A year later, two events happened in rapid succession. Fred moved on to a position at Ohio State University. Soon afterward, the magazine went into receivership. Jack Matlick bought the magazine to combine it with his magazines, Kentucky Farmer and Tennessee Farmer, and named me Managing Editor. A few months later, I became Editor.
A Big Change
As another year went by, I received a call from Gene Charles, editor of Deere & Company's magazine, the Furrow. He asked if I would be interested in becoming an associate editor. It was a tremendous opportunity and in May, 1959, I moved to Moline, Illinois.
The next three years were the most dynamic I could have imagined. I traveled widely in both the U.S. and Canada. A range of picture and story responsibilities provided never ending excitement and challenges. While there, I managed to accomplish three firsts at the Furrow.
I was the first to have a three-page story in the history of the then 68-year-old magazine, the first to have a story in which a picture ran full bleed on the page and the first to have a 35mm photograph used.
In the meantime, however, the South was beckoning, a holdover from my military days in Louisiana. To me, the broad arc extending from Virginia to Texas had the potential to become far more important agriculturally. I felt the urge to be a part of what I believed was about to happen.
In May, 1962, I left Deere to join the Tennessee Valley Authority's National Fertilizer Development Authority. It was the world's largest facility devoted to fertilizer research, development and introduction.
Yes, it was federal government and a bureaucracy Still, I was able to become an important part of a pioneering effort to create a broadly based communications program involving almost every facet of the profession.
Every year saw new challenges emerge in how to effectively communicate the Center's work. I was involved with creating displays, writing and producing audio visual presentations, arranging for news coverage, shooting documentary photographs both still and video, writing feature stories and researching and writing targeted publications. I was deeply involved in training fertilizer dealers, foreign nationals and Peace Corps volunteers and produced an audio-visual presentation in Nigeria to encourage that country's leaders to properly fund a program to stimulate domestic food production. Another major project was developing a training program for marketing fertilizer in Third World countries. I could go on. But you get the idea.
When I left the Center in 1988, I left behind an archive of more than 72,000 photographs I had made to document the Center's far flung involvement with Land Grant universities and fertilizer companies throughout the U.S. That collection is now part of the National Archives.
On To Freelancing
In the meantime, and as time and ethics permitted, I completed many freelance projects for such prominent organizations as Delta Airlines, IBM and Time-Life Books. In 1976, and on assignment from Time Magazine, I was on the Pan Am flight that set a new commercial around-the-world speed record of 46 hours and 10 seconds.
I also did many assignments for advertising and public relations firms both inside and outside agriculture. Some involved only photographs, others were feature stories or product oriented articles for the agricultural press.
For many years, I also was involved with stock photography agencies that sold my pictures for use in text books, advertising, promotional and editorial purposes both in the U.S. and in foreign markets.
I left TVA in 1988. I say "left" because the word "retirement" has never been in my vocabulary.
Since then, I have written, self published and marketed three books related to pleasure boat cruising on the inland waterways. I ended that adventure two years ago with sales pegged at more than 26,000 books.
At present, I'm on contract to do editing for the International Fertilizer Development Center, just finished editing two books for clients in Alabama and Florida and am toying with two more book projects of my own.
Professional Connections
I have belonged to two professional communication organizations. Since 1973, I have been a member of the American Society of Media Photographers, an international and prestigious group of more than 5,000 photographers. Membership is granted only after portfolio review and personal endorsement by two members in good standing.
Far more important to me, however, has been the American Agricultural Editors' Association (AAEA) of which I have been a member since 1962. I have served on 56 committees, took the lead in establishing professional improvement as the AAEA's most important mission and was the first Affiliate member to serve on the AAEA Board of Directors. Over these past 47 years, I have never missed an annual AAEA meeting.
I brought to the AAEA an exceptionally wide understanding not only of communications in agriculture but also from far beyond it. That proved invaluable in my attempts to have AAEA members embrace the wholeness of the profession, not just what applied to agriculture.
The most important attribute, however, was one of neutrality. Because I was never intensely involved with any publisher for more than a short time, I have been able to express ideas and make suggestions without being impeded by past employment alliances.
Also, for 12 years I attended the Miami Conference On Communication Arts, a small but extremely significant event attracting the world's best journalists, editors, art directors and publishers. For most of those years, I had a rare opportunity to help plan the tenor and flavor of those conferences by virtue of a friendship between me and Wilson Hicks, the first Executive Editor of Life Magazine.
From Now On...
From that first job 51 years ago, I have always been driven by the search for excellence in this profession. I seek the facts, encourage my imagination and often go where no one has gone before.
A test a few years ago confirmed what I've long suspected. That is, I am a visionary. If you don't already know this, visionaries are often obstructed in what they attempt to do and criticized for the way they view the future.
In the end, however, I have no regrets. I have always firmly believed life should be an exciting trip, a time of doing only what is enjoyable and of supporting and promoting a chosen profession.
No matter what I do or where I go, agriculture and the rural environment are the voices that speak to me with the greatest authority and joy. Coming from the country is the finest heritage and the most solid backdrop anyone can have. My interest in being a journalist in agriculture has never wavered. It's a noble calling and I'm deeply thankful I heard it.
What people do with their lives is governed by their values and their choices. In my case, I am pleased with both. If I were not to wake up tomorrow morning, it's been a fine ride.