The U.S. Custom Harvesters Hall of Fame

INDUCTEES OF USCHI HALL OF FAME

Allen Funk - (2017)

Allen's father John started his harvesting adventure in the late 50's with two partners. They each had one single axle truck and one combine. It was 1957; south they went with their 92 Masseys and a hopeful thought of making a little money. Little did they know that partnership wouldn't make it to the end of the run, with one passing due to a harvesting accident and the other to a heart attack. John thought that was the end but when the customers kept calling he thought why not. John and his son-in-law, Eugene bought two more 92's and two more trucks and that was the start of Funk Harvesting. Allen was right there at his father's side, he was a sophomore at Eureka High School at the time.

Allen was born on January 29, 1943 to John and Magdalena Funk in Eureka, SD. He attended country school and later graduated from Eureka High School in 1960. He then attended SDSU until his draft number came up and he enlisted in the US Air Force. There he trained as a jet mechanic and advanced to the rank of E8 (Sargent). After receiving his discharge, he returned home to Eureka and the life of a harvester and never missed another summer. Allen spent the next three winters working at the Homestead Gold Mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He also drove school bus for many years during the offseason so there would be a little extra spending money.

In August of 1971 Allen married Brenda Fischer and their son Darrick was born the same year. Allen's new family began their harvest lifestyle as they too went on harvest every year. Brenda and Allen's mother (Magdalena) would prepare three meals a day and take care of the laundry for the crew that had grown to 15. In 1979 Allen's family grew by one more, welcoming his daughter Trisha to the family and harvest lifestyle as well where she also made the harvest run for the next 20+ years.

Funk Harvesting went from three '92 Masseys to three '95 John Deere's in 1964. That is the year Allen also left for the US Air Force where he served two of his four years stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. During those two years it was not uncommon to receive a little sniper fire. After returning home and joining his father in the harvest business as his lifetime venture, they soon add the fourth combine in 1969. In the early 1970's the Funk's grew to five 7700's and updated their trucks to GMC's with 427 gas motors. They harvested from Tennessee, Arkansas all the way up north to the Canadian border and returned to Arkansas in the fall. They faced many challenges along the way, as most custom harvesters do. However through the years the business kept growing with the addition of a 6th combine. That was the for many years to come with the exception of one or two short term additional machines to handle some bigger jobs. Going from 7720's to 9600's as the combines got bigger and faster Allen started to downsize, eventually settling on three machines until mid-2000's when he decided two was the "magic" number. Allen ran John Deere machines until 2013 when he switched to Case-IH. "It was a good run" he always said, "but a little change can't hurt."

In 1981, Allen built a shop in Eureka, SD and started to employ men year round. They would bring every piece of equipment he had, including the 4 camper trailer and give them the "once over with a fine tooth comb". He had a simple, but effective system to keep track of who did what. He was always looking for ways to become more efficient by using any new add-ons or performance parts he found or heard about. He also came up with countless improvements himself, of which some worked and some not so well. He was always curious how something worked and didn't mind taking it apart a couple times until he got it right. Every winter the employees cleared out a big spot so he could take on another project, whether it be modifying a combine trailer or building a 6x6 self-propelled grain cart.

Allen Funk was a harvester through and through; the job came before anything else most of the time. There were a lot of missed birthdays, fall football games, and class reunions. The years of harvest life also took its toll on his marriage to Brenda as they divorced in 1994. Allen joined USCHI as soon as he knew about and was on the job of recruiting membership everywhere he went. He loved spending time in our capital supporting laws that affected the custom harvest community or putting on safety meeting in South Dakota and Western Minnesota. He served on the USCHI board and several committees and rarely missed a meeting, whether it be the Christmas or the annual meeting. He also attended the Canadian meeting. He always wanted to do his part for the USCHI organization and never looked to the next guy to address the issues. He didn't believe in a free ride. Allen was also very involved in the community of Eureka where he belonged to the Chamber of Commerce, Development Corporation; he was a proud member of the American Legion and V.F.W.

Allen has influenced so many people in the 60 years that he was harvesting. He gave many young men a chance when no one else would. If they had a good attitude, Allen was willing to invest his time in them by giving them an opportunity to be part of the harvest life. He loved to teach, and mentor; he was a very patient man when it came to training his hired help. It didn't matter if it was the right way to hold a wrench or a major overhaul, he always took time to explain why or how something worked.

Allen was one of the first harvesters to use foreign help using a J-1 training visa. The crew had help from many different places such as Sweden, England, Holland, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Most of these employees would return for many years.

Allen had a very loud and one of a kind laugh. His children loved listening to his stories from over the years and he loved to tell them. A few that come to mind are when he unloaded everything in order to fit through a toll booth because the guy in the booth said he wouldn't fit otherwise. Or the time we hauled the combines 60 miles down the Mississippi River to get to our wheat job. Another one of his favorites was trying to describe how devastating the tornado was that came by our field must have been. No matter what life threw at him, no one ever saw him give up or want to quit.

Allen Funk