A24— Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 5,1980
Two Penn
Manor families
have four
Keystone sons
BY DICK WANNER
MILLERSVILLE - When
Gordon Long and Ramon
Hunt pick up their FFA
Keystone Fanner degrees
next week in Harrisburg,
they will be adding one more
item to an unusually long list
of coincidences.
Gordon, the fourth son of
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Long,
R 3 Columbia, is the fourth
Long to earn the Keystone
degree. He lives with his
parents on a small, family
owned farm. Both his
parents held full-time jobs
off the farm. All three of
Gordon’s brothers work in
some phase of agriculture or
agribusiness, which is what
Gordon plans to do after he
graduates from Penn Manor
High School. He has been a
Penn Manor PFA member
since his freshman year.
Gordon’s friend, Ramon
Hunt, is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Clyde Hunt, Miller
sville Rl. Other than that,
everything so far mentioned
about Gordon applies just as
well to Ramon.
There are differences of
course, both in the new
Keystone Farmers and in
their families.
The Hunts live on a farm
belonging to Isaac Hunt,
Ramon’s grandfather. Both
Clyde and Alma Hunt work
for Lancaster County
Farms, the former Clay
Reese Co., wholesalers of
eggs, butter and cheese.
Ramon’s oldest brother,
Randy, graduated from
Penn Manor in 1975. Randy
is now farming on the halves
with his grandfather on 130
acres outside Millersville. A
new barn, silo and automatic
feeder have just been in
stalled that will let Randy
feed out 150 steers a year,
about double the number he
was able to handle before.
He’ll also be raising 200
feeder pigs to market
weight.
Ron' Hunt, a 1976 Penn
Manor graduate, went a step
beyond the Keystone Degree
this year when he picked up
an American Fanner degree
in Kansas City. As a
maintenance worker at R&K
Agri-Service, the former
Royster Co. near Lancaster,
Ron helps keep the
machinery there in working
order. His business sense
and his welding and
mechanical skills helped
earn for him the American
Farmer degree.
■*/
» *
*
Clyde and Alma Hunt, right, with their four sons,
all of whom have, won Keystone Farmer degrees,
the highest FFA degree on a state level. The sons,
left to right, and the year of their awards are:
Rick Hunt, a 1977 Keystone
Degree winner, is helping his
brother Randy on the farm,
and hiring himself out to
neighbors. He was also
building a business in tractor
repairs and repainting when
fire earlier this year
destroyed the bam where he
was working. A new
structure, measuring 50’x84’
is now being built, and when
it’s finished, Rick expects to
pick up where he left off with
the tractor work.
After be graduates in
June, Ramon hopes to find
work in ag mechanics. Like
his brothers, Ramon’s FFA
projects included hogs,
tobacco and com. Last year
he grew 12 acres of com on
ground that Randy will be
using this year to grow feed
for the steers.
And, like his brothers,
Ramon was an active
member of the Penn Manor
FFA chapter, where he held
a number of offices, in
cluding vice-president.
“We never pushed any of
the boys into vo-ag or FFA,”
Ramon’s parents said in the
living room of their red brick
house. “They have all taken
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Ramon, 1980; Randy, 1975; Ron, 1976, and
Richard, 1977. Ron went on to win the American
Farmer degree, awarded this past November at
the National FFA Convention in Kansas City.
an interest in vo-ag, they’ve
all had excellent teachers
and we’ve tried to give them
whatever support and en
couragement we were able
to.
“It seems to have worked
out with all of them.”
Those words were nearly
echoed in the kitchen of the
rambling old farmhouse
where the Longs live, by a
sharp bend in Franklin
Road, outside Columbia.
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* •* - ■
“I give Gus Birchler a lot
of credit for running a good
ag department,” Howard
Long said. “Our four sons
did well in vo-ag and FFA,
and I don’t think they could
have gone as far if it hadn’t
been for the excellent
they had at Penn
Manor.”
Howard Long is a driver
for Allied Mills in Lancaster,
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