As a third-generation farmer, Bob raised cattle, hogs, soybeans and corn and later invested in various Nebraska agribusinesses. Throughout Bob’s career, he worked to build alliances between U.S. commodities to improve cross-industry partnerships. He participated in worldwide trade missions and hosted international trade groups. Bob believed in the future of agriculture, the family farm, and mentoring and supporting young farmers.
Bob Dickey is a devoted family man, committed to his faith, to his community, and to his roots. He participated in athletics in high school, excelled in music, and was and is a product of the 4-H program. Bob is a proud veteran who served in the Army and played in the Army Band. Bob continues that service to veterans after being discharged from the Army; he started teaching adult agricultural education instruction for veterans in agriculture, and he has worked as a postal clerk in his home community.
He took his small town upbringing, education, and passion for agriculture to the state, national, and international level. There are few in this business that are so cross pollinated in growing and raising a wide range of agricultural products and then have the opportunity to travel the world to actively promote them. It takes a real motivation and skill-set for leadership to lead organizations as diverse as school board, church board, 4-H, Farm Credit, Farm Bureau, Pork Producers, Corn Producers, and organizations having offices in Washington D.C. and around the world.
Bob started his service work at the local level serving in numerous commodity organizations. He raised cattle, hogs, and various grains both to sell and feed. He was an active conservationist and was recognized as a Master Conservationist by the Omaha World Herald and University of Nebraska. Bob was a Mentor in the TeamMates mentoring program. He has constantly given back to his community.
As Bob became more established financially, he made sure he invested in other agribusinesses including: Specialty Protein Producers in Norfolk, Husker Ag Processing in Plainview, and Advanced Bioenergy at Fairmont, Nebraska. He also started investing his time, first with the Farm Credit Bank Board representing NE, IA, SD, and WY. He started taking his local commodity organization experience to the state level; he was appointed to the Nebraska Corn Board, serving there for a total of 21 years. He was on the LEAD Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of the Northeast Research Station.
Bob's leadership did not stop at the state boarders; as a representative of the Nebraska Corn Board, he became involved with the United States Grains Council (USGC). He rose through the ranks and became chairman from 1997-98 representing the nation's corn, sorghum, and barley producers. The USGC is based in D.C. with offices around the world. The USGC opened opportunities for Bob to travel the world, dedicating feed mills and feedlots, and promoting trade agreements, and industrial uses for our commodities. He had the opportunity to attend the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan promoting corn and soy-based processed products that were interestingly part of a style show. As chairman of the USGC, Bob worked to build alliances between many U.S. commodities to improve cross-industry partnerships.
As a representative of the Nebraska Corn Board, Bob became more involved in the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and there served in many different leadership capacities. He was elected President of NCGA 2008-09, also serving as the Co-Chairman of the AGRI/Industry Council 2009-10.
Service on the Nebraska Corn Board allowed Bob to participate in numerous worldwide international trade missions. Bob returned that opportunity by hosting many international trade groups from numerous countries. His international experience opened doors for Bob to participate in trade missions with Governor, Mike Johanns, Lt. Governor, Rick Sheehy and Governor, Dave Heineman.
Bob took some time out in the middle of his commodity work to serve as District 18 State Senator and served on the Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and General Affairs Committees.
Few in this country have had the opportunity to serve in as many state and national leadership levels. Bob has combined his knowledge of production agriculture, his formal education at the University of Nebraska, his chain-of- command experience from the military, and his leadership and common-sense skills to move up the ladder to serve. I believe he took the four basic cornerstones of commodity work established at the Nebraska Corn Board: Education, Research, Promotion and Market Development, and ran with those as a way to further our agricultural industry. He took his passion and a willingness to commit the time and the initiative to step away from his comfort zone to serve in these many roles.
Through all of his involvement, travel, meetings, and exposure, Bob had the opportunity to put his Toastmaster involvement to work, speaking not only at farm conferences and other states' commodity organizations, encouraging them to invest in their checkoff and association work. He also spoke at numerous international conferences in at least 20 foreign countries.
Bob has been properly recognized by many; those are typically plaques on a wall, which are of value, but it is the experiences and the people along the way, I believe, Bob cherishes most of all. Let me take a little, or in this case, a lot of time to share just a few of those major recognitions:
* Young Farmer Award, Nebraska Dept. of Agriculture, 1974
* Toastmaster Award, Toastmasters International, 1984
* Outstanding Contributions to NE, Research and Extension, UNL, 1996
* Top 100 Best-Managed Farms in USA, 1998
* Livestock Producer of the Year, Block and Bridle, 1998 *Honor Farm Family, Lincoln Journal Star, 1999
* Man of the Year in Service to Nebraska Ag, Pro-Farmer Magazine, 2000
* Master Conservationist, Omaha World Herald, 2001
* Cedar County Pork Producers Pork Booster, 2002
* Businessman of the Year Award, NRCC's Business Advisory Bd, 2004
* University of Nebraska Block and Bridle Club Honoree, 2005
* Am. Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers Award, 2009
In closing out this tribute, it would be remiss of me not to mention Bob's greatest award in life, and that is his family and his many friends. Bob did not accomplish all of this on his own. Bob has had many support groups along the way: teachers, mentors, community and neighbors, fellow board members, staff in all the organizations he served, and others too numerous to mention.
Then there is his family; his parents instilled the roots from which Bob grew. His brothers and sisters, whom I'm sure he challenged and was challenged by, but admired his accomplishments. Then there is Mary. Bob and Mary married in 1965; Bob has said he could not have accomplished much without Mary at his side. They both overcame cancer on their life's journey. They have been blessed with the best reward of all and that is three very accomplished children Julie, Jim and June, and eight grand children. This award is most deserving. Congratulations Bob Dickey.
