John W. Minor papers, 1971-2001

Summary

Creator:
Minor, John W.
Physical description:
2.00 Linear Feet, 2.00 Boxes
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The John W. Minor papers are a part of the Arthur Capper Cooperative Research Collection, a resource for the study of agricultural cooperatives. This collection includes training programs, presentations, publications, annual reports, and artifacts related to John W. Minor’s career in cooperative agriculture, in particular his work with the regional cooperatives FAR-MAR-CO and Farmland Industries. Training programs and presentations include a variety of courses spanning accounting, business planning, grain storage, and professional development, many with handwritten notes and additions. Publications include assorted booklets and circulars relating to cooperative farming. Annual reports from Farmland Industries and FAR-MAR-CO (as well as its PROMARK system) range discontinuously from 1975 to 2001. Artifacts include paperweights and other commemorative items.

Biographical / historical:

John W. Minor, a Kansas State University alumnus, worked in both local and regional cooperatives, taught Vocational Agriculture, and provided educational programs for regional cooperatives as an employee of FAR-MAR-CO and Farmland Industries. He grew up on a farm a mile west of Bloom, Kansas in Ford County, and his grandfather was a board member of the Bloom Cooperative Exchange (which later merged with the Mineola Cooperative Exchange). He taught Vocational Agriculture in Abilene and Scott City, Kansas, the latter for four years. At Scott City, he so impressed Roderic Simpson, a FAR-MAR-CO fieldman, that he was recruited at the end of his tenure by FAR-MAR-CO. FAR-MAR-CO arranged a subsidized internship at the Scott City Cooperative, during which he moved across departments for training. At the end of ten months, he became the coordinator for the new Careers in Cooperatives education program for FAR-MAR-CO in Hutchinson, Kansas. Following the 1977 FAR-MAR-CO merger with Farmland Industries, he moved to Kansas City and the Farmland Educational department. In 1983, he returned to general management at a local cooperative, the Producers Cooperative of Girard, Kansas, for a span of four and a half years, after which he returned to Farmland. In 1998 he joined new special projects group called One System Group for Farmland Industries, in order to re-design all of their business enterprises and departments and create a new business model built into a Y2K initiative compliant software package. In 2001, One System Group became an equal partnership between Farmland Industries and Ernst & Young, an accounting firm. Later in the new millennium, One System Group became an independent company when Farmland’s share was bought out, and subsequently changed hands several times before John W. Minor’s retirement in 2005.

Acquisition information:
Acqusition Source: John W. Minor Acqusition Method: Donation. Acqusition Date: 20170127
Processing information:

Minor revisions to the scope and content (as well as to the creator biography) were made in August 2017 following feedback from John W. Minor.

Finding Aid Author: Patrick C. Dittamo
Processing Info: Patrick C. Dittamo, graduate student at Kansas State University, processed the collection, and curator David Allen reviewed it, in July 2017.
Publication Date: 2017-07-10

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into 4 series by content: 1) Training programs and presentations, 1974-1994, undated; 2) Publications, 1971-1990, undated; 3) Artifacts, 1993, undated; 4) Annual reports, 1975-2001.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
General note:

Published

Dacs citation:

Preferred Citation: [Item title], [item date], John W. Minor papers, Box [number], Folder [number or title], Morse Department of Special Collections, Kansas State University Libraries.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Kansas State University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:
Agriculture and rural life

Contents

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