A Tribute to Roy Applequist, Great Plains Founder

The news that Kubota will buy Great Plains Manufacturing was big, and it rippled through the ag community, the farm equipment industry, and the community of Salina, Kansas. In a commentary that ran in the Salina Journal, Marshall Stanton, retired president of Kansas Wesleyan University, characterized the sale as a “shock” and described Great Plains as “one of Salina’s greatest points of pride.”

Stanton wrote a tribute to Great Plains founder Roy Applequist, which included these words:

“While I was president of Kansas Wesleyan University, Roy accepted membership on the Board of Trustees. Although quiet and unimposing, Roy had an immediate influence. The great respect afforded him because of the success of Great Plains strengthened his suggestions. In due time, he was elected chairman. From that moment, the trajectory of KWU tilted upward. A new energy of hopefulness was infused, contentions subsided and unity prevailed. KWU’s recovery was on its way.

“From time to time, Roy would make an appointment to visit with me. His suggestions were creative, well-composed and forward-looking. He was never harsh or demeaning. Personal relations and the welfare of the school were uppermost. After such visits, I would think, ‘Roy’s been sitting over there in his office as the owner of a multimillion dollar enterprise but thinking how to keep moving KWU forward.’

“Such visits helped energize me, and the suggestions helped move KWU forward. At all times in dealing with me and with the Board of Trustees, Christian compassion was an evident virtue informing institutional decisions and human relations.”

Stanton concluded with this: “Perhaps my written tribute to Roy Applequist expresses the unspoken but deeply felt understanding of thousands who know in part but admire at a distance a man with a vision. Thanks, Roy.”

Source: Salina Journal S