Ag educator, innovative potato farmer inducted into county Hall of Fame
Glen Windram and his wife, Vicki, listen as the biography of Glen’s father, Harold A. Windram, is read during the 2021 Agriculture Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Columbiana County Fair.
Shirley Thompson, pictured holding the frame, and her family were presented with a framed photo and biography of Harold J. Thompson, her husband, who was inducted into the Agriculture Hall of Fame Tuesday morning at the Columbiana County Fair. (Salem News photos by Lily Nickel)
Glen Windram and his wife, Vicki, listen as the biography of Glen’s father, Harold A. Windram, is read during the 2021 Agriculture Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Columbiana County Fair.
Shirley Thompson, pictured holding the frame, and her family were presented with a framed photo and biography of Harold J. Thompson, her husband, who was inducted into the Agriculture Hall of Fame Tuesday morning at the Columbiana County Fair. (Salem News photos by Lily Nickel)
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LISBON -- The Columbiana County Agriculture Hall of Fame inducted two more local agricultural legends into its prestigious society.
The families of Harold A. Windram, longtime educator and farmer, and Harold J. Thompson, an innovative potato farmer, were present during Tuesday's induction ceremony at the fairgrounds to accept the late farmers' awards.
While Windram's roots were in farming, his son Glen Windram, Leetonia, said he was first and foremost a teacher and leader. Born in 1924, Windram started his career in 1950 at Northwestern HighSchool in Wayne County as a vocational agriculture teacher.
Windram taught vocational agriculture for most of his career and started the vo-ag and FFA programs at Lisbon David Anderson High School and in the Carrollton school district. He capped his career as an elementary school principal in the Shelby City School District before retiring in 1980.
To sum up Windram's compassionate nature and leader mindset, his son referenced his father's time as elementary school principal. Windram saw the end of segregation in the Shelby school district and was questioned by the superintendent on how he would "handle" having a Black student at his school.
"Well, I'll do what I do with every new student. I'll meet them at the bus drop, welcome them to the school, and walk beside them," Windram replied.
His son said that he is grateful that his father is being recognized.
"I've recognized for a long while that my dad was a great, great person, and it's nice when other people recognize that," Windram said.
The next inductee, Harold J. Thompson, devoted his life to his one, true love according to his daughter -- potatoes.
"The best love he had was potatoes. That was his love, potatoes," Lynnelle Zimmerman, Hanoverton, said.
Born in 1926, Thompson started Thompson Farms in Wayne Township in 1944 just after graduating high school. He started with 100 acres and started growing potatoes. Thompson managed the farm and installed an underground irrigation system and a grading and wash system, which were both innovative in the region at the time.
What started as 100 acres of potato crops grew over a 50-year period to over 1,000 acres of farmland where he grew potatoes and strawberries and raised 150 head of Angus beef cattle.
Thompson was an avid supporter of the Columbiana County Fair and Zimmerman said he was there up until his death at 90 in 2016.
The Agriculture Hall of Fame can be viewed in the arts and crafts building at the fairgrounds. The tradition started in 2000 and numerous late members of the agricultural community have been recognized for their contributions over the last 21 years. The award is given posthumously, and the recipient must have been an active member of the agricultural community or contributed to it significantly during their lifetime. The award is presented by the Columbiana County Historical Society, the Columbiana County Agricultural Society and the Columbiana County Farm Bureau.
lnickel@mojonews.com