Ron Wilson makes a lot of mental notes.
He did Thursday evening at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, while telling about rural Kansas stories he has found and scripted for radio since 1992 for the popular “Kansas Profile” series.
Someone mentioned B&W Trailer Hitches in Humboldt, and how Joe Works, its owner, had done so much for the community. “That’s a story,” appeared in an imaginary bubble above Wilson’s head.
Also, there was the Bowlus Center, a remarkable facility for a town of Iola’s size, for a Kansas town of any size, he said several times in an hour of recalling episodes about such things as Cobalt Boats in Neodesha and marketing western Kansas tumbleweeds by way of the Internet.
WILSON is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University. His mission, in addition to telling stories about entrepreneurs in the state, is to encourage Kansans to realize that they can improve their lives and those of friends and neighbors by seizing opportunities whenever they arise.
Many of the 900 “profiles” he has written and produced the past 18-plus years are sterling examples of people doing just that, often because circumstances opened a door or persistence paid off.
“What can we do here to improve ourselves economically and thrive?” Wilson was asked.
He rubbed his chin while composing an answer, one he had given many times before but always carefully considered to make it sincere and fitting; anything to the contrary would be out of the question.
“There’s no magic answer,” Wilson said. “But, you have a lot going for you. Build on your assets. You have great quality of life; you have the Bowlus Center; grow your own businesses; do things (to retain) and bring your young people back, which today’s technology makes very possible. Keep the community clean and active and engage your youth.”
If rural Kansas has a downside, he said it was underemployment, meaning that wages lag behind those in metropolitan areas and some people — often including both spouses — have to work more than one job to meet financial obligations.
THE CRUX of Wilson’s presentation was reappraisal of stories he found and fleshed out for the “Kansas Profile” series.
“I’m often asked what my favorite story has been,” he said. “That’s like asking a parent which is the favorite child.”
There isn’t a good answer, but “I’ll give you some compelling examples,” Wilson said.
* Don Landoll of Marysville dreamed of being a pilot when he was in high school. The day after graduation he volunteered for the Air Force — and immediately flunked his physical.
Back in Marysville, Landoll took up welding, a skill he learned in high school, and began to make things that soon required him to hire three employees.
Today Landoll Corporation has 500 employees and sells trailers and other products coast-to-coast. The company also grew to the point that Landoll bought an airplane for business trips, and learned to fly it.
* Pack St. Clair liked boats. He and some friends built several, went to a boat show and returned to Neodesha with the realization that competition for moderately priced boats was fierce.
“Pack decided to build a ‘Cadillac’ type of boat and today Cobalt Boats are sold all over the world and he has 500 employees at his plant in Neodesha,” Wilson said, an amazing part of the story being that “you can’t get much further from the ocean than Neodesha.” Cobalt Boats, he added, is a prime example of the positive effect a homegrown business can have on a local economy.
* The Reeve Cattle Co., Garden City, is a good example of common sense coupled with diversification leading to success.
After building an ethanol plant to convert corn to alcohol-based fuel, it was a logical step — for an entrepreneur — to use warm water from the process to nurture tilapia, a fish much favored by diners. Going further yet, residue from ethanol generation is used for cattle feed and fertilizer.
* Arts and crafts and tourism are more a component of economic development in Kansas than many may realize.
Wilson mentioned the Gen. Fred Funston Home and Museum here, a story that Iolan Clyde Toland helped Wilson tell, and how Marci Penner was “such a great advocate for rural Kansas, with her Kansas Sampler Festival and Kansas Explorers Club.
“You need to see Kansas through new eyes,” which Penner does, he observed.
Tourism has many twists and turns.
Wilson recalled a telephone conversation with a French woman about a horseback riding vacation in Kansas.
“She called from France, which Kansans usually think of as more a tourism destination than Kansas,” he said. “We in Kansas need to appreciate the high quality of life we have,” see the state for the “timeless values it has: clean air and water, safe streets and good schools. Rural Kansas is a great place to raise a family, to thrive and grow.”
* All things sold have a place in the global market, because of the Internet.
Prairie Tumbleweed Farm was a spoof of Linda Katz when she first created its website.
“She wrote about raising tumbleweeds and marketing them on the Internet,” Wilson said. “She posted it and forgot it.
“One day her phone rang and woman back East wanted some tumbleweeds for wedding decorations. She shipped one and soon more orders were pouring in.”
Katz has been featured in USA Today and other publications, as well as by Wilson on “Kansas Profile.”
“There’s even a Japanese translation of her website,” he said.
“Technology has changed significantly how we go about things and opened doors for rural Kansas.”
