Bruce Heiden

Inducted in 2014

Mar 3

Buckeye - Maricopa County

Inducted in 2014

Like many of his contemporaries, Bruce Heiden has had a multi-faceted career in Arizona agriculture. In addition to numerous commendations by his peers, one word repeatedly appears when referring to Bruce: “gentleman.”

As a savvy businessman, he has held leadership positions in various industry-oriented organizations. The owner of H-4 Farms in Buckeye has given time to community activities, including Little League, 4H, FFA, the Maricopa County Fair, and his church.

A second-generation Arizonan, his parents came from Massachusetts in 1930. Both his father and brother suffered from asthma and needed the healing properties of a warmer, drier climate. Bruce recalls parents landed in Phoenix during the heat of August. Not only did they arrive amid the monsoon season, but the country was in the depths of a major depression, making jobs difficult to come by. His dad was an automobile mechanic and eventually found work at a garage in Buckeye. Later, he moved to the International Harvester dealership. In 1943, he left the dealership to rent a farm, beginning a new chapter in the family's life.

Bruce was born in Buckeye in 1934 and attended school there. When he graduated from high school in 1952, he had one goal: "I had a one-track mind at the point, and that was to join my father in the farming operation." He has been farming ever since.

Bruce's father started with 240 acres of rented farmland in the Roosevelt Irrigation District. A year or two later, he bought a 320-acre farm and worked it for two years before selling it. He retired for a year and purchased the farm the Heidens now call home.

While in high school, Bruce had his eye on a lovely young woman named Helen, who had recently moved here from Texas. Although she reportedly made him work to win her favor, they married in 1952, not long after graduation.

Throughout the years, he has been a leader in agriculture at the local, state, and national levels. In addition to operating his cattle feeding operations and Paloma Gin Properties, he has been active on the boards of several agricultural organizations.

Bruce says the cotton industry has dramatically changed since they planted their first crop in 1952. "At that time, mechanical harvesting was just beginning, and we still harvested a lot of cotton…picked a lot by hand. By the 1960s, we had discontinued hand harvesting and have been machine harvesting ever since."

Throughout the years, Bruce has held many leadership positions. He became a member of the Arizona Cotton Growers Association in the late 1960s, serving as their president and chairman of the board from 1978 through 1980. He was also elected as a delegate to the National Cotton Council, representing the Arizona cotton growers in 1975. He was elected president of the National Cotton Council in 1989 and served another year as board chairman. In 1995 was elected president of Calcot Limited, a marketing cooperative organization representing cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley and Imperial Valley of California and Arizona.

The Heiden family farms 7,500 acres in the Buckeye area, including a property west of Gila Bend. The Heidens' four children are all involved in the enterprise. Art oversees the general farming operation, Les manages the feedlot, harvesting, and marketing of the alfalfa responsibilities, and Hal is active in the family farm. He owns his own aerial application business, and his daughter Holly is involved with the business end of the enterprise.