I’m guessing that by now, many of you have seen the viral video postings from August 29 that included a video captured from inside the conference room at Illinois’ John Deere dealer group AHW LLC.

Paul Degelman says his dad, Wilf, was never much of an office guy. “He was either on a tractor seat, in a Cat doing work or out in the shop.

“Dad was demanding,” recalls Paul Degelman of Wilf’s approach to business at Degelman Industries. “Everything we did had to be well done, have nice edges; it had to look good and clearly seen as heavy-duty.”

Farm Equipment reached out to a few contemporaries of Degelman founder Wilf Degelman, 2024 inductee into Farm Equipment’s Shortline Legends Hall of Fame.

Despite having little formal education in design and drafting, Wilf Degelman was a confident implement innovator.