Purdy father, son speak for FFA tradition
Adam McGee (left) and his father, Leonard McGee (right), have always owned horses. The elder McGee says he rode a horse to herd cattle on the Kansas ranch where he grew up.
Dr. Adam McGee, above, is a Purdy native - the son of Leonard and Myra McGee. After a childhood spent on a farm and in FFA, McGee is now an assistant professor at Missouri State University, where he teaches classes related to beef cattle and their nutrition.
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Leonard McGee, above, was the Vo-Ag and FFA instructor for the Purdy R-II School District for 28 years.
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February 24, 2021
Sheila Harris
For 28 years, Leonard McGee’s name was synonymous with agriculture in the Purdy R-II School District. For those who know him, it still is.
After he began teaching Vo-Ag for the district in 1975 – during a time when family dairy farms were more plentiful in the county - McGee coached a 1978 FFA dairy-judging team to a national first place win, then took the team to Europe to judge in the international competition. More first place state wins by FFA dairy-judging teams followed in 1982 and 1984. Many of those team members went on to follow career paths in agriculture.
“We’ve had a lot of young people from our small town who have done well for themselves in the agricultural field,” Leonard McGee said.
McGee’s son, Dr. Adam McGee, is included in that number - something Leonard McGee and his wife Myra are justifiably proud of. Following his parents’ paths as educators (Myra McGee taught Family and Consumer Sciences for the Purdy R-II district), Adam McGee used his agricultural background and FFA experience to pave the way to his current position as assistant professor in the agriculture department at Missouri State University in Springfield, where he teaches classes related to beef cattle and their nutrition.
The path to his position in Springfield was not direct, however. It involved schooling and teaching in locations from the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to the north - where he learned feedlot nutrition and earned a Master’s degree – to Abilene, Texas, to the south, where he taught general agriculture classes at Abilene Christian College.
On stops in between, although not listed here in consecutive order, he began college at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in Miami, Oklahoma, where he met his wife Lida through church. McGee left NEO to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, then taught shop classes in Arkansas City, Kansas, to high school students.
“I enjoyed it for a while,” McGee said, “but I missed the production side of things. That’s when I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Nebraska. It was a great opportunity to learn feedlot nutrition.”
From Nebraska, McGee went on to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma to earn a PhD, with a focus on cow/calf nutrition. The teaching stint at Abilene Christian College followed, but his heart wasn’t in it, McGee said. He wanted to focus on ruminant nutrition.
When the assistant professorship position became available in Springfield, McGee saw it not only as an opportunity to teach beef cattle classes, but also as an opportunity to come back home.
Home, to Adam McGee, means closer to his parents and the farm he grew up on in Purdy, where they raised all kinds of livestock.
“Everything but goats,” he said. “We even had one pig.”
“We took the pig in on trade for a lamb,” Leonard McGee said. “Or we wouldn’t have had it.”
McGee says he feels the same way about pigs as he does about goats.
Although Adam McGee’s college path was varied, much of it included livestock-judging – beginning with the time he spent traveling to FFA judging competitions with his dad during his years in Purdy.
“Growing up, I was always with my dad,” Adam McGee said, a tradition which goes back for multiple generations.
Leonard McGee was raised on a farm in eastern Kansas, where his great-grandfather obtained the family’s initial 160-acre parcel of land in a trade.
“My great-grandfather,” said Leonard McGee, exchanged a wagon and a team of mules for a homesteader’s land. The man just wanted out of there. Kansas wasn’t for him, he told my great-grandfather.”
Leonard McGee, too, participated in FFA throughout his time in Blue Mound High School - located in a town with a population just shy of 300 on the 2010 census.
After graduating in 1968, he put in some time with the national guard and attended Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in Miami, Oklahoma.
“One of the reasons I wanted to go to college,” McGee admits, “is so that I could judge livestock, something he was able to do when he later transferred to University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The University of Arkansas is where he also met Myra, who he judged to be a keeper. The couple were married, then moved to central Arkansas, where McGee began a teaching position in what he calls the “mosquito-infested” town of DeValls Bluff.
After Myra finished her degree at nearby Harding University, where she had transferred, the couple looked for teaching opportunities closer to her parents’ home in Rogers.
When Leonard was accepted for the Vo-Ag and FFA teaching position, the couple bought a farm practically adjacent to the school and set about raising a family - and livestock.
Leonard McGee retired from teaching in 2003, the year Adam McGee graduated from high school. He hasn’t retired from raising livestock, though. Not cattle, anyway. He plans to continue until he dies, he says, a sentiment common to many livestock owners.
In addition to being closer to his parents, Dr. Adam McGee’s new position in Springfield will allow him to settle in with a farm of his own. He and Lida – who is a pharmacist for CoxHealth in Springfield – purchased a house and land near Ash Grove where they currently keep their two horses. McGee suspects they’ll be adding to their own livestock collection soon.
Sheila Harris
For 28 years, Leonard McGee’s name was synonymous with agriculture in the Purdy R-II School District. For those who know him, it still is.
After he began teaching Vo-Ag for the district in 1975 – during a time when family dairy farms were more plentiful in the county - McGee coached a 1978 FFA dairy-judging team to a national first place win, then took the team to Europe to judge in the international competition. More first place state wins by FFA dairy-judging teams followed in 1982 and 1984. Many of those team members went on to follow career paths in agriculture.
“We’ve had a lot of young people from our small town who have done well for themselves in the agricultural field,” Leonard McGee said.
McGee’s son, Dr. Adam McGee, is included in that number - something Leonard McGee and his wife Myra are justifiably proud of. Following his parents’ paths as educators (Myra McGee taught Family and Consumer Sciences for the Purdy R-II district), Adam McGee used his agricultural background and FFA experience to pave the way to his current position as assistant professor in the agriculture department at Missouri State University in Springfield, where he teaches classes related to beef cattle and their nutrition.
The path to his position in Springfield was not direct, however. It involved schooling and teaching in locations from the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to the north - where he learned feedlot nutrition and earned a Master’s degree – to Abilene, Texas, to the south, where he taught general agriculture classes at Abilene Christian College.
On stops in between, although not listed here in consecutive order, he began college at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in Miami, Oklahoma, where he met his wife Lida through church. McGee left NEO to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, then taught shop classes in Arkansas City, Kansas, to high school students.
“I enjoyed it for a while,” McGee said, “but I missed the production side of things. That’s when I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Nebraska. It was a great opportunity to learn feedlot nutrition.”
From Nebraska, McGee went on to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma to earn a PhD, with a focus on cow/calf nutrition. The teaching stint at Abilene Christian College followed, but his heart wasn’t in it, McGee said. He wanted to focus on ruminant nutrition.
When the assistant professorship position became available in Springfield, McGee saw it not only as an opportunity to teach beef cattle classes, but also as an opportunity to come back home.
Home, to Adam McGee, means closer to his parents and the farm he grew up on in Purdy, where they raised all kinds of livestock.
“Everything but goats,” he said. “We even had one pig.”
“We took the pig in on trade for a lamb,” Leonard McGee said. “Or we wouldn’t have had it.”
McGee says he feels the same way about pigs as he does about goats.
Although Adam McGee’s college path was varied, much of it included livestock-judging – beginning with the time he spent traveling to FFA judging competitions with his dad during his years in Purdy.
“Growing up, I was always with my dad,” Adam McGee said, a tradition which goes back for multiple generations.
Leonard McGee was raised on a farm in eastern Kansas, where his great-grandfather obtained the family’s initial 160-acre parcel of land in a trade.
“My great-grandfather,” said Leonard McGee, exchanged a wagon and a team of mules for a homesteader’s land. The man just wanted out of there. Kansas wasn’t for him, he told my great-grandfather.”
Leonard McGee, too, participated in FFA throughout his time in Blue Mound High School - located in a town with a population just shy of 300 on the 2010 census.
After graduating in 1968, he put in some time with the national guard and attended Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in Miami, Oklahoma.
“One of the reasons I wanted to go to college,” McGee admits, “is so that I could judge livestock, something he was able to do when he later transferred to University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The University of Arkansas is where he also met Myra, who he judged to be a keeper. The couple were married, then moved to central Arkansas, where McGee began a teaching position in what he calls the “mosquito-infested” town of DeValls Bluff.
After Myra finished her degree at nearby Harding University, where she had transferred, the couple looked for teaching opportunities closer to her parents’ home in Rogers.
When Leonard was accepted for the Vo-Ag and FFA teaching position, the couple bought a farm practically adjacent to the school and set about raising a family - and livestock.
Leonard McGee retired from teaching in 2003, the year Adam McGee graduated from high school. He hasn’t retired from raising livestock, though. Not cattle, anyway. He plans to continue until he dies, he says, a sentiment common to many livestock owners.
In addition to being closer to his parents, Dr. Adam McGee’s new position in Springfield will allow him to settle in with a farm of his own. He and Lida – who is a pharmacist for CoxHealth in Springfield – purchased a house and land near Ash Grove where they currently keep their two horses. McGee suspects they’ll be adding to their own livestock collection soon.