Dick Severson dreamed of becoming a farmer as a boy growing up in Salem, Ore., but was discouraged from entering the field by his parents, who fled the Midwest during the Great Depression.

“They’d been through some pretty rough times with farm life,” Severson said.

His interest in agriculture never wavered during career stints in fisheries and the corporate world. After retiring, he thought it was better late than never.

“I didn’t start farming until I was 60 years old,” Severson said, with a chuckle.

On Nov. 22 in Salem, Ore., Severson, now 80, will be honored as Oregon Aglink’s Agriculturist of the Year during the organization’s annual Denim & Diamonds gala.

The farm life

Severson Farms includes about 65 acres near Springfield, Ore., where Severson and his wife Maryanne Severson raise cattle, grow row crops and have a nursery.

They’re transitioning out of the nursery business because they’re getting older and the product takes so long to mature.

But they’ll continue farming for the foreseeable future.

“My very worst day on the farm is far better than my best day in the corporate world,” Severson said.

Severson was a member of agricultural organizations for decades, including Oregon Association of Nurseries, Oregon Cattleman’s Association and Oregon Farm Bureau and was president of what would become Oregon Aglink for three terms.

He said his farming legacy and what he enjoyed most were relationships, such as with nursery customers. Landscapers are experts who don’t need education about their orders, so Severson talked with them about their families.

‘Lightbulb went off’

Severson said he has agricultural roots thanks to his grandfather, who farmed in Iowa.

“I can remember visiting a relative of my mother’s in Idaho who farmed. I think I was 10. The lightbulb went off. … It was something I knew I really wanted to be doing,” he said.

He worked in farms and canneries — anything related to ag — to gain experience.

But his parents steered him away.

Severson also enjoyed hunting and fishing, so after graduating from South Salem High School in 1962, he decided to learn about fisheries in college.

Fisheries, corporate career

Severson worked for the state of Oregon on fisheries research projects. When an Oregon law passed in 1971 allowing private ownership of salmon facilities, he helped start a company that raised, released and recaptured salmon.

Oregon Aqua-Food’s McKenzie River site was the largest hatchery in the world, designed to produce 80 million salmon a year. The company was owned by Weyerhaeuser.

The Seversons purchased property nearby and raised their two daughters on a hobby farm.

In the late 1980s, a wild fish policy limited the number of hatchery fish that could be released and the salmon ranching business closed.

For a while, Severson did consulting in countries like Japan, Norway, Iceland and Chile that were building salmon farming programs.

A director for Oregon Aqua-Foods was developing a plan to use industrial waste byproducts for farm application and asked Severson to lead what became Agri Tech in Albany, Ore.

Passion as a blessing

Eleven years later, in 2003, Severson officially retired — and decided to commercialize his farm.

“I just like to think of it as: Blessed is the man who is given a passion in life,” Severson said.

He still loves the ag life.

“I guess just taking the raw ingredients of developing and growing something from seed to maturity and selling that and marketing that, whether it’s the cattle side of the operation or agronomy, it’s just something that inspires me,” Severson said.

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