I don’t consider myself political. An ideological type maybe, but not political. 

But late at night last week Tuesday, my son, Drew, serving in the Middle East, texted to see if I was watching the mid-term elections. It was an unusual text from the 26-year-old Staff Sergeant, since most of our text banter since he’s left home centered on Milwaukee Brewers or wise-guy memories and movie quotes. 

Still texting at 6:52 a.m. his time, he was in tune with what was happening back home 6,100 miles away.

Days later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the elections as “close to an extinction-level event” for the Republicans. Others called it a “Watergate-level repudiation and a rebellion” against the GOP.

I concluded our chat indicating that I hoped my son wouldn’t be “welcomed home” from his deployment to discover that socialism had taken over.

The Next Day

I awoke in an even fouler mood the next morning. Pondering the weight of what could happen next, I let it out. Would the America we knew be recognizable in the years ahead? The stoutness and character of our nation has been eroding underfoot for decades. Would there be anything left to stop it with the turning tide?

It wasn’t the loss of the seats that bothered me as much as what caused it, starting with the enormous error and arrogance of a White House I’d supported. The results show yet another indication that some young people have already given up on the dreams previous generations embraced for themselves.

Many, apparently, feel life is so stacked against them that they want to be “cared for.” That bootstrapping effort, sweat and burning muscles is the thing of suckers. That the journey accompanying ambition and hard work is not worth the reward, including lessons far more meaningful than what’s in a paycheck.

Compounding the anger, distrust and hate is a lack of respect for the discipline that worked for centuries. That discipline, along with entrepreneurialism and work ethic, made possible the individual, family, community and national wealth. Americans were a people who’d bet on themselves, and a great many rose from meager beginnings.

Losses Mount

We’ve lost a lot more than most can tally up right now. 

How else can you explain how welfare-state fraudsters are protected more so than those they rob? We have hearts bleeding even for those who want to take from us and destroy the soul of what made us.

Anti-business activists purport to kill the spirit that made America. Those of us who believe in capitalism and what it teaches in the way of belief, can-do spirit and character are vilified.

The recklessness of recent politics could well swing the pendulum farther to the left than it could have naturally reached on its own. Those fears existed well before last week’s elections, but the notion of course charted toward a caretaking state now feels more real, and imminent.

The people have spoken, say the liberals. But many don’t realize they’ll also get what they asked for and may not realize for another decade that prior times weren’t so bad after all.

Meanwhile, Back in Kansas …

As you know, the ag equipment industry, and the entire business world, lost a legend in Landoll Corp. Founder Don Landoll, who died on Oct. 31, 2026, just days after his son, several executives, friends and colleagues gathered in New Orleans for the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Assn. (FEMA) Convention. FEMA was one of the treasures of Don’s life, and he wasn’t shy about crediting the organization and his peer members and suppliers who helped him build a company with world-recognized technology and facilities in tiny Marysville, Kan.

Like many friends, employees, colleagues and suppliers, I made the trip to Marysville for the wake. 

The unplanned trip to Kansas (which also included meetings over two meals and half-dozen dealer and supplier stops) was what I needed, just 48 hours after the clouds of the election.

At each of my stops leading up to Marysville, others added new wrinkles to my understanding of Don’s incredible story (see original blog below), especially his love for his community. He was a buoyant force and to many who knew him, a hero. 

What I heard were stories and accolades for the example he set. Belief. Common Sense. Faith. Humility. Loyalty. Authenticity. Generosity. 

Someone on social media re-shared our “How We Did It” video and podcast series with Don, the debut episode in the series Farm Equipment produced several years ago. He’d listened to it as he mourned his friend and leader, and suggested it was worth all of our listens. Here’s the link to the interview, in Don’s own words.

Among other things I re-heard in that podcast was how he was told, in the early days, to get out of the business while he still could. He didn’t, of course, and became a legend as he chose to “do things right.”

And here was the change I noticed as I headed back to the Kansas City airport that day, which came with that suggestion to give Don’s story another study.

“The Chief,” as Don was affectionately called, and a devout follower, would’ve shown a lot more faith in people than where I presently sat, I realized. Thus, Don got my attention once again.

His is a story that must be preserved; one that should never stop being told and shared. 

Despite sometimes dour news, we’ll still find what is good and right out there if we look for it, though other agendas will try to marginalize such stories as relics of the past. 

The greatest thing we can do for the legacy of Don, my father and many others of a generation now disappearing is an unwillingness to let them be forgotten. 

Keep telling their stories, and what 21st century America, and its people at its best, was like before other interests got their hooks into our flag.

Someday, even today’s naysayers may come to realize that there’s a part of America’s character that’s still worth restoring.

On this Veterans Day, a special thanks to all of those in our industry, past and present, for your dedicated and selfless service.

Related Content:

• Don Landoll, How We Did It Video Docuseries, Part 1

• Don Landoll, How We Did It Video Docuseries, Part 2

• Don Landoll, How We Did It Video Docuseries, Part 3

Don Landoll: Farm Equipment Industry Loses a True Industry Great

Founder of Kansas-based Landoll Corp., 1943-2026

Published November 1, 2026

A text Saturday brought some difficult news, that Landoll Corp. founder and legend Don Landoll had passed at age 83. His story of meager beginnings is not only one of the greatest in industry history, but one of the most inspirational stories in all of American business and industry.

While I had been aware of the Landoll name, I didn’t meet Don until my first Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association Convention in October 2004, just months after our family business acquired Farm Equipment and what would become known as Farm Innovations and Ag Equipment Intelligence. That booming voice of his that I heard in Orlando, and which has been so familiar over the past 22 years, is one that won’t soon be forgotten but will be missed.

Those of us who did business with Don would agree it was a privilege, whether as a supplier, dealer or support company like ours. And if you weren’t involved in Landoll’s farm equipment offerings directly, you likely knew the trailers donning his name that carried combines and tractors of all colors out to the masses.

The Landolls did things right, and it started with the “Boy-Wonder Welder” who started it all after initial plans fell through. 

A Remarkable Hall of Fame Career

Reflecting on Don and the relationship so many of us had with this true industry legend, I searched for and found the notes I’d written for his Shortline Legends Hall of Fame induction at the 2023 Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association Convention. This memorable inaugural class also included Don’s friends and fellow founders such as Roy Applequist of Great Plains Manufacturing and Applequist Manufacturing; Jon Kinzenbaw, Kinze Manufacturing; the late Joe MacDonald of MacDon and the late Gary Vermeer of Vermeer Corp.

I’d urge you to get to know Don better from the Hall of Fame coverage (click here). But here’s a Cliff Note’s (or podium-concise) version of a career that the crowd for the inaugural Hall of Fame induction was so eager to celebrate:

Don Landoll, one of 8 children raised on a farm in Hanover, Kan., was destined to be a manufacturer. He was building at age 7 on an Erector set long before the farmstead even had its own electricity.

A failed Air Force physical days after his high school graduation landed Landoll back in his hometown of Hanover, Kan. He landed at the International Harvester dealership, Hanover Implement & Manufacturing, where his prodigious welding (he was so good that he was teaching vo-ag welding in high school) caught the eye of a welder 30 years his senior. He would hand-pick the 21-year-old to go into business with him in opening a small blacksmith shop in 1963. 

Within a few years, his partner returned to a railroad career and financed the sale of the entire business to his partner, and a manufacturing powerhouse across several industries would soon bear his name.

Landoll’s inventiveness and ambition would soon make tiny Marysville, Kan., a world-class manufacturing center. He made a personal pledge to build the most advanced tillage factory in America. When he couldn’t find a robotic welder to meet his requirements, he built his own — on three different occasions. More than 30 welding robots would dot the plant as his approach to vertical integration brought plate and tubing in one door a finished product bearing his name was loaded up for delivery.

In addition to tillage, Landoll offered a wide array of seeding and seedbed prep offerings, including its acquisition of the entire Brillion Farm Equipment in 2010.

His lineup would include 9 plate laser cutters, 4 tube lasers, 6 CNC press brakes, 25 CNC machining centers, a water-jet cutting table and one of the nation’s first fiber-optic laser cutters. At full production, more than 1,000 staff operated nearly 1 million square feet of manufacturing capacity to ship its products to 39 nations. In addition to its ag equipment core are 4 other divisions — construction, forklifts, trailers and OEM/government.

Further, I know the people of rural Kansas are every bit as thankful for Don's community stewardship as they are for jobs and area support business that kept their folks working. Landoll led the revamp of the Catholic school and playground, airport, Library Park and a reading garden at the elementary school. 

Something I hadn’t known about the humble Landoll, was that Don had donated $1 million to assist with building an FFA (Future Farmers of America) vocational agriculture building at Marysville High School, as reported by Kansas Living Magazine.

Landoll Company was also the largest donor while leading fundraising efforts for the area’s new hospital and St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church.

The Half-Century Mark: A Day to Remember

When Don’s “little company” turned 50 years old in 2014, he chose to say thanks to everyone that he could who'd helped him transform a 3-man shop into a global leader. 

Prior to a special community- and family-oriented celebration in Marysville, Kan. in May 2014, Don welcomed his suppliers, lenders, dealers and colleagues of the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association to a private lunch.

Landoll’s remarks reinforced the authenticity of the relationships he’d built. Employees, dealers, suppliers and lenders were all the foundations of the business, he said.

Don did something there that I’ve never seen done before. He directed each of the hundreds of guests (including this editor/publisher) to take the roving microphone and introduce themselves and their company. Following each guest introduction, Don, while standing in the center of the room with his own mic, shared an off-the-cuff memory and anecdote on each person and company. It was amazing.

Following that meal at Landoll Lanes, he personally led the group on a 3.5-hour tour of the production facilities, which included Landoll’s own self-designed and built plant machinery. Don was not at all secretive about his operation; he’d opened his plant to everyone who wanted to see and learn. 

We were all amazed at his perfect memory of each machine and the day it went into service, and also the name of every floor worker we passed, whom he greeted with a hello.

The day culminated in the larger community celebration, featuring supper, music and fireworks. Don and his kids didn’t require any RSVPs to track attendance, but it was known that 6,000 meals were served at the event — in a town with a population of 3,100.

Personal Observations of Don, and Yours Too

Here are a few observations in these early hours of reflecting on the loss of Don.

• Landoll Corp. has been part of Farm Equipment magazine nearly from its own beginning in 1970. His friend, and my sales mentor, (the late “Jimmy Rank” as Don called him), pushed Don to promote himself starting with a series of 1/6-page ads, because, as Jim recalled, “he owed it to himself, his company and his hardworking employees to advance his innovations and his business.” Don listened, and the partnership started in the early 1970s and continues to this day, including working directly with Don, Paula-Landoll Smith, Jamie Meier and Phil Landoll.
• I’ll always remember the kindness and insights shown to me at my 30-plus FEMA meetings and 4 summer board events, which as past president, he rarely missed. The FEMA organization, and everyone who took the time to attend and contribute toward, were “his people.” Others will surely aim to pick up on Don’s example, but the FEMA family lost its #1 supporter, cheerleader and encourager this week. If there’s a FEMA flag out there somewhere, it will be set at half-mast this week. In fact, the USDA and Department of Commerce should also be adjust their flags today, too.
• Don served as president a very long time ago (1990-91), but still attended nearly 100% of the FEMA Summer Board Meetings. They were his “vacations” due to his deep friendships and personal care about his chosen profession. It was also a show of support, guidance and wisdom for those who followed and would need to make decisions on the industry’s behalf. He cared as deeply about the organization today as he did 35 years ago when he led the association. And when Don talked, people listened. 
• His son, Phil, was just elected 1st Vice President of FEMA in New Orleans last week and will assume the presidency in October 2027.
• This CEO was far from an ivory-tower type. In fact, he was a fixture at the grueling summer farm shows that tested other executives’ patience. He wanted to be with farmers, seeing his suppliers, chatting up industry peers, and even talking products, trends and asking questions of the trade media. As a result, he was grounded in real farmers’ needs and surely studied new ways to weld industry-leading farm equipment.
• Our small talk often involved a common interest in Green Bay Packer wide receiver Jordy Nelson, a farm kid who grew up 50 miles south of Marysville and was an All-American at Kansas State before joining the Green & Gold, and ultimately its Hall of Fame. We (and the late Mike Irish) talked Packers even more after he acquired Wisconsin-based Brillion Farm Equipment.
• I'm grateful that my wife and sons had the chance to meet Don. Don showed particular interest in my oldest son, Drew, an Army Reservist on his second deployment in the Middle East right now.
• Please watch the How We Did It Series Videos on Don, and share them widely. His is a story that needs to be told and retold. He’d tell everyone who’d listen that greatness remains possible, and can be achieved, if one puts their mind to it.

Leave a memory in the comment field below, and we’ll be sure that Phil, Paula and the rest of the Landoll family see your kind words.

Final Arrangements

Don will lie in state on Thursday, November 5, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Kinsley Mortuary in Marysville, Kan. A rosary service will be held at 7 p.m. that evening at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church in Marysville. On Friday, November 6, Don will lie in state from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church, with a rosary service at 3 p.m. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 7 at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church in Marysville. Burial will follow in St. Gregory’s Catholic Cemetery. A memorial fund has been established, with the designation to be announced at a later date. Contributions may be sent in care of Kinsley Mortuary, P.O. Box 147, Marysville, KS 66508. 

Don Landoll Photo Gallery