The U.S. Custom Harvesters Hall of Fame

INDUCTEES OF USCHI HALL OF FAME

LaVern & Carlene Schemper - (2018)

LaVern Schemper was born June 22nd, 1945 to Gerald and Ailene Schemper in Kansas. LaVern made it through 12 years of school before he decided to make running combines a way of life. He started out running a 1953 Gleaner A with a 14 foot head in 1962 at the age of 17 for his Dad Gerald. At the age of 18 LaVern bought his first combine, a Gleaner A with his Dad's help and went to Oklahoma for his first year as an owner in custom harvesting. At the age of 21, in 1965 he was drafted into the marines and went off to Cherry Point, North Carolina. He was in the marines for 7 months 15 days and was discharged due to a family hardship when his Dad Gerald became very ill. He met up with the crew in South Dakota for the remainder of the wheat harvest. One and a half years later he was drafted again but this time into the Army. He went off to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, TX. From there he was sent to Germany as a motor carrier in transportation. Again, after 7 months and 15 days in Germany he volunteered to go to Vietnam because all of his friends from Norton County, Kansas were already stationed there. He spent one year in Vietnam with the 1st of 5th infantry in a mechanized unit. He left Vietnam with a purple heart and a bronze star and ets out of service and went home to see that his Dad had bought four C2 Gleaners in 1969. He started helping his Dad pick corn in the Holdrege, Nebraska area after returning home from Vietnam and has never missed another harvest run.

In 1973, on September 15th he married Carlene Engelhardt in Almena, Kansas and they managed to go on their honeymoon right away to the Black Hills and Yellowstone National Park. Carlene knew she was hooked on harvesting when LaVern took her out on a second date to learn how to drive a new GMC grain truck. After the honeymoon they took over one of the crew trailers that fall and started harvesting together and have been ever since. They have always lived in or around Holdrege since they have been together and eventually had four children of their own. Julie, JC, Jared and Janel all grew up on combines. Over the next years LaVern owned many Gleaner G, L, L2's, L3's and always ran Ford Louisville trucks. In 1987, instead of buying Gleaner Rotors he changed to Case IH combines buying 1680 and 1688's. In 1991, he changed to running John Deere Maximizer combines 9500 and 9600's and has been running John Deere's ever since. He since has given up on the Ford trucks and now owns Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks. His run has always started at Frederick Oklahoma and works his way up into the Dakota's.

By 1994, LaVern and his two brothers and Father Gerald had a partnership that grew up to as many as 12 combines at one time. In 1995, after Gerald passed away in the fall of 1994, LaVern, Lonny and Larry decided to split ways and run their own businesses. LaVern and Lonny stayed close together and JC bought his first combine a 9600 in 1998. Jared bought into the business in 2000 and Janel to this day still runs combine for LaVern. LaVern has been a successful businessman due to a lot of family support.

In the summertime, you will see LaVern at 72 years of age still running his own combine and Carlene driving trucks and hauling grain to the elevators. Janel will be running the second one with JC and Jared along with a bunch of grandchildren manning the buddy seats around the same areas. Lonny also still runs his combines close by and works with the family every day. This has been a successful mix for many years due to LaVern always providing quality work and never using price of cutting to get extra work. He always takes time to teach safety to every worker and uses the words hustle but never hurry.

Lavern and Carlene have given many men a chance to work with them on the harvest run. Even if they had no experience at all he would take the time to teach them and make sure they are doing their job right. Many men have come back to work for Lavern year after year and it is not uncommon to see men work for him 3 to 4 years in a row. He has always worked with his crew and makes sure everyone of them does their part of the harvest. He has used the H2A program in the past but since 2004 has employed all American help. One young man told LaVern he could use a power washer and LaVern replied with, "I have one – you are it. Go grab a rag and a can of gas to get that grease off." LaVern always has up to date equipment and believes in clean and neat equipment to advertise a clean harvest crew. In 1983, for $25 he became a member of USCHI after talking to Russ Sammons, Phyllis Weiss and JL Pettit about trying to start an organization because of too much Canadian competition and trying to regulate the price of harvesting. LaVern and Carlene are lifetime members of the USCHI. LaVern has served on a nominating committee for USCHI one year with Russ Sammons, Jon Tyler and Ron Lawrence back in the 1980s. One of their main goals was to make sure that the Vice President moves up to President the next year if someone runs for Vice President. Carlene has been busy for several years helping with the scholarship side of USCHI. She has been the scholarship chairman from 2005 to 2008 and then again from 2012 to present. She enjoys the quilts from making them to giving them away and sitting at the trade show booth as she always has a smile for this side of the organization. One of the highlights of convention for her is giving the recipients a scholarship from USCHI. LaVern and Carlene have been harvesters for many years. However, a lot of their harvester friends over the years have retired or quit harvesting.

One thing Lavern and Carlene love is the sport of basketball. Raising their own children they made sure in the winter months that they had plenty of basketball court time. Each son and daughter has at least one trophy for winning a free throw contest. LaVern has a great jump shot and made sure each kid learned how to shoot a basketball due to many hours he taught them at the local athletic club. He loves watching high school basketball at the local games and college basketball on a Saturday TV screen. He has many more games to watch with 11 grandchildren coming up through the high school years.

Custom harvesting is a tough way of life and LaVern and Carlene have made a lifestyle out of this kind of work. They make it look easy and as long as they have good health and a good family backing them they will continue to harvest the crops that feed the world. They have earned this great award through all their hard work and the sacrifices they have made. Though not every year is a good year they always seem to find a way to keep going! They've witnessed floods, droughts, and hail and many other extremes including good crops and bad crops and they've seen a lot over the years. LaVern and Carlene are made for this and I hope they can receive this great honor and achievement in harvesting. I hope anyone that reads this can see that LaVern and Carlene have earned this achievement.

LaVern & Carlene Schemper