Joseph Kuhn Feffer
Dewey - Yavapai County
Inducted in 2012
Joseph Kuhn Feffer could be described in various ways: cowboy, World War II veteran, cattle trader, entrepreneur, cancer survivor, devoted husband, and father. Born in Springfield, Illinois, on December 18, 1924, to Frank M. and Carolyn Feffer, Joe's family relocated to Phoenix in 1935. His grandfather, Jacob Feffer, had moved to Arizona earlier for health reasons and encouraged the family to follow. At that time, the Feffer patriarch was part-owner of a small fertilizer business called Arizona Natural Products, so Frank Sr. had a job waiting for him when he arrived.
With the scientific help of Max Wharton, an Associate Horticulturist at the University of Arizona who later became a partner, the company grew into Arizona Fertilizer Company. Arizona Fertilizer was the first company to tag its bags with an analysis showing how much nitrogen, phosphate, and potash were in the mix. The company eventually evolved into Arizona Agrochemical Corporation, a multi-national affiliate.
Joe, his older brother Frank Jr., and his younger sister Carol attended Kenilworth Elementary School in Phoenix as youngsters. Frank Jr. went on to Phoenix Union High School. Joe and Carol attended the newly completed North High School, where Joe was a member of the state championship beef-judging team.
Frank Sr. knew Ray Cowden of Cowden Livestock Company, Arizona's most influential cattleman and rancher. On weekends, he arranged for Joe to work as a cowboy at Cowden's Tolleson feedlot. Commercial cattle feeding was not common in those days, and the Tolleson yard was one of only two in the state, the other being the largest in the world at that time with a capacity of 16,000 head of cattle. Joe raised bred cows owned by Cowden Livestock for FFA and worked with Dr. Frank Alby, a large-animal veterinarian, after school during the week. From those experiences, he discovered that he liked working with livestock and had an aptitude for it.
At that point, Joe made a significant decision that would affect the rest of his life: to learn all he could about livestock management and working with cattle. He enrolled in the University of Arizona's School of Agriculture in 1942. Hospitalization from an accident caused him to get behind in his studies, so he dropped out. However, this setback did not deter him. He was determined to pursue his passion and learn more about the cattle business. When he was released from the hospital in October, he worked for Ray Cowden at a ranch he owned with Norman Palmer in Willcox.
Working directly with Palmer was a turning point in Joe's life. Palmer took the time to explain fully the details of ranching and the cattle business to Joe and the reasons behind everything that was done. Later, Joe said, "I had a great deal of admiration, respect, and affection for Mr. Palmer; he was a good cowman and a good person who was good to me, helped, and taught me a lot. I couldn't have had a better teacher and was much better off with the experience."
During World War II, the livestock industry was considered essential for domestic well-being. Because of this involvement, Ray Cowden arranged for Joe to have an Essential Industry Deferent for his military service. Although Joe appreciated the effort, he wanted to serve his country in the military. Norman Palmer then suffered a heart attack. Joe waited until Mr. Palmer was sufficiently covered to resume ranch management before enlisting in the Navy in 1943. Joe served as a signalman aboard the USS Ranger, mainly in the South Pacific.
When the war was over, Joe returned to the States and enrolled in the University of California's College of Agriculture at Davis on the GI Bill. Those were good years for Joe. He participated in roping and other rodeo sports and met the woman with whom he would spend the rest of his life, Lydia Frances Parrot. They were married on August 22, 1948.
Joe graduated with a degree in agriculture and animal science, with a minor in animal nutrition. Their eldest daughter, Leighan, was born on May 24, 1950, the night of his physics final in his senior year. Joe liked to joke that she was the reason he wasn't a veterinarian. His sense of humor was a constant companion in his life. After college, Joe and Lydia moved to a ranch near Albion, Nebraska, where Joe managed the operation for Wolf Brothers Cattle Company. Not used to the harsh winters and with a young child, they headed back to the desert in July 1951. Joe told the story that at the end of their year there, he said to the owners, "I'm from Arizona. I know better than this."
Charles Cochran offered Joe a job as an assistant feedlot manager for Western Farm Management, located between Mesa and Chandler. When the cattle market took a downturn in 1953, the feedlot closed, and Joe was given a job managing the TK-Bar and the P-Bar ranches in Yavapai County.
After a short stint as a hay-buyer, Joe moved to Yuma and opened his new livestock trading company, Wagon Wrench Cattle Company. Soon, Martin was born in Phoenix, and daughter Katha was born in Yuma. California's Imperial Valley was the family's next stop. Joe continued his trading business through the ups and downs of the cattle market, buying cattle from ranches throughout the Southwest. After a few years, the family moved closer to Brawley, California, where Lydia established her training stable for junior riders. Joe had a reputation as a fair horse trader, which complemented Lydia's career as a horse trainer and youth mentor. In 1963, Joe joined forces with brothers Joe and Louie Anderholt, who worked as feedlot managers at their farming and cattle-feeding operation in Holtville, California. He stayed with the operation through several changes until it was finally sold in 1978. During that time, Lydia attended the University of California at Redlands to get an undergraduate degree in accounting.
In 1967, Joe's brother Frank Feffer, Jr., became president of Arizona Agrochem (formerly Arizona Fertilizer), the largest agricultural chemical company in the state. In 1968, the company became a subsidiary of Early Industries Inc. In 1971, Early Industries, through another subsidiary, Chemonics International, successfully obtained a US Agency for International Development (USAID) contract in Afghanistan to build the Afghan Fertilizer Company for that country's government.
Following that, Chemonics won another USAID contract for the government of Mali. In 1980, his brother recommended that Joe head up the overseas operation as Chief of Livestock Marketing and Feedyard Advisor. His knowledge of cattle feeding in an arid agricultural environment was a valuable asset to developing permanent pastures for the nomadic tribes, and he was the reason he was recruited. Joe moved to Bamako, the capital city of Mali, to start work on the project while Lydia stayed behind to finish her degree at Redlands. As soon as she graduated, she packed up their home and moved to Bamako to be with her husband. Joe launched himself into the work and, within months, had mastered the French language to be more effective.
Though the obstacles and problems with the project were, at times, staggering, Joe distinguished himself as a leader who could not be deterred from accomplishing the tasks at hand. The program was completed, and management was relinquished into local hands in 1985. Joe was then given the job of conducting a countrywide survey of the constraints to livestock production in the West African country of Guinea, traveling from village to village in his work. On his return to the States, he spoke frequently about his experiences overseas.
In 1986, Joe and Lydia moved to Washington, D.C., where they lived for three years. Joe continued to work for Chemonics during this period and made several trips for short-term consulting projects in Honduras, Thailand, and Oman for the company. Sometimes, he was away for months at a time. In his absences, Lydia found temporary employment in Washington as a bookkeeper/accountant at Price Waterhouse. The temporary job turned into a permanent position. During this period, Joe also completed a Master's degree in Business Management from Pacific Western University.
In 1989 Joe was hired as Director of African Operations for a joint American/Senegalese operation in Senegal to create a diversified agricultural project and he and Lydia relocated to the city of Dakar. This was a vast and challenging enterprise that never reached fruition. It was hindered in numerous ways from the beginning, and the slow demise of the project left Joe cooling his heels for much of the three years until it became clear that further waiting was fruitless.
Joe and Lydia returned to the U.S. in 1992 and rented an apartment in Queens, New York, while they sorted out their circumstances. Joe was impressed with Lydia's experience as a temporary employee and signed up with a Manhattan agency, taking on two exciting placements. One was with Sumitomo Bank in the World Trade Center, where he tracked and reviewed large commercial loans in the Asset-Backed Finance Department. His next job was at Cigna Corporation, where he coordinated inter-branch claim reporting.
In late 1993, Joe and Lydia came home to Arizona, settling in the small community of Dewey, near Prescott. At sixty-nine years of age, Joe was starting over again, going back to his first and most enduring interest of buying and selling cattle in Arizona. It wasn't long before he had re-established his contacts. He freely gave up his time to share his experiences in Africa with interested civic groups. Lydia started volunteering at a local riding stable.
In 1997, Joe suffered a stroke. Within months of his release from the hospital, he was on horseback checking out a herd of heifers. In 2004, Joe was diagnosed with bladder cancer, underwent surgery, and again recuperated quickly. He resumed his life trading cattle, riding horses, and helping Lydia develop her volunteer trail-riding classes for the Horses With Heart program at the Whistle Stop Stables in Dewey.
In 2006, cancer was found in the left lung. Intensive chemotherapy stopped its growth, but cancer was detected in his right lung a few months later. He made one last cattle-buying trip to St. John's, Arizona, with his family in 2008. After a long and courageous battle with the disease, he passed away in 2010.
Joe Feffer lived by a strict code of ethics. When asked what message or advice he would pass on to following generations, he said, "Make sure you do what you agreed to do. Your reputation is all you've got. That's the only thing left when you get everything all stripped away. The thing I'm proudest of in my life is that for the last twenty years, we haven't had a contract or a deposit on cattle anywhere - buying or selling. It was all done with a handshake."
Affiliations
US NAVY- Signalman on the USS Ranger (CV-4) aircraft carrier, stationed first in the Atlantic and then the Pacific Oceans, 1943 - 1945.
FFA - championship beef-judging team, North High School
USAID project - Mali
USAID project - Guinea
Consulting - Honduras, Thaila
