Doug Rich came by his writing credentials the only way a journalist can get them.
For 40 years, he worked tirelessly at his profession. It didn’t matter if he was interviewing a farmer in a field of ripening corn in Kansas or covering the latest issue at a meeting in Missouri.
What made Rich an outstanding journalist was no matter where he was, he cared and he always listened, those who worked with him say.
“He listened as he reported the story,” said Mike Deering, executive vice president of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association. “And he did so accurately and with a great deal of passion.”
Rich, who spent 40 years telling agriculture’s story for High Plains Journal, retired in May 2018.
“The one thing I found with Doug, what makes him a good correspondent or editor, is he knows the art of conversation,” said Pete Weil, the Journal’s former National Accounts Manager who worked with Rich most of his 40 years. “He knows how to communicate with people.
“He is an excellent communicator, and he has the ability to let other people bring out their best.”
Rich grew up on a family farm in Bates County, Missouri. He went to college at Central Missouri State. His first job in the journalism business was in Linn County, Kansas, where he helped combine three community newspapers into the Linn County News, becoming the publication’s first editor.
March 17, 1978, was his first day at High Plains Journal.
“It’s been interesting to see how ag has changed in some ways,” Rich said. “But we are actually still writing about the same things we did 40 years ago—the Ogallala Aquifer, no-till farming. I look back at some of my first stories and that is what they were about.”
The Journal is where Rich met his wife, Barb, who was in the classified advertising department at the time.
Barb Rich said during her first week of work, she received a phone call from “a single farmer seeking a wife with a late-model tractor—please send picture of the tractor. Of course, I wrote the ad down and realized pretty quickly that there was a group of guys in the editorial department having too much fun at my expense. Yes, Doug was one of the culprits.”
They married in 1980. In 1982, as the Journal began expanding to six editions, the couple moved to Lawrence where Rich covered Missouri, eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma. Today the Journal has five editions providing coverage for 13 states.
Rich recalled a few stories, including when members of the American Agriculture Movement barricaded the doors of an ag economics meeting in Texas.
Another, about a New Yorker who moved to eastern Kansas to raise buffalo, caused Rich to get a call from the Riley County sheriff. They had a picture of Rich talking to the man.
Rich soon learned the buffalo rancher was growing marijuana in his old barn.
Rich also received honors for his writing, said Publisher Holly Martin. He received several American Agricultural Editors’ Association and Livestock Publications Council awards, including being named Master Writer for AAEA.
Doug and Barb have two children, Darcie and Lindsey, who both enjoyed going with their father on some of his assignments. They also have two grandchildren.
“If you can wake up every day and be excited about doing your job for 40 years—I think it is important to find something you enjoy doing then do it,” Rich said. “It makes life much more fun. I have met so many people who didn’t enjoy their jobs. I was always glad I did.”
Amy Bickel can be reached at 620-860-9433 or [email protected].
