Russ Ronnebaum
Our 2024 Sunflower Award winner was born and raised in Seneca, Kansas, the youngest of five children and the only boy. His mother was a housewife and his dad was the owner of several successful businesses, including Seneca Ready Mix, Seneca Fertilizer and Seneca Transportation.
His dad offered to bring him into the businesses after he graduated from Bethel College in 1983. He declined. He wanted to make his own imprint and his own way in the world.
After a brief stint selling insurance, he was hired by Hammel Scale as a sales professional in October of 1983.
He earned his way to president of Hammel Scale in 2001, and continued his role as a salesman, even with the added responsibility of running the business.
He’s dedicated the last 40 years of his professional career helping all different types of industries with the challenges of different weighing processes. His specialty, and first love, was providing the grain industry with truck scales and other equipment, including automatic grain probes and moisture meters.
In 2022, he sold the business to Mettler Toledo and is currently serving as the Sales Manager for the BBQ Belt Region of Mettler Toledo.
Throughout his career he worked diligently to ensure the future of our association and industry were pointed in the right direction. He dedicated countless hours to our association, as a member of our board of directors from 2009-2018 and a valued member of the Kansas Agri Business Expo Committee.
He also assisted the academic futures of countless Kansas students by reviewing up to 300 applications per year and award scholarships on our scholarship committee. Most recently, he served on the Kansas Agri-Business Council board of directors, assisting the association determine political contributions to individuals running for the legislature.
This individual sponsored numerous KGFA functions such as the hospitality suites we enjoyed last night and merchandise, including annual golf shirts for the Cranor Memorial tournament, of which, he played on the winning team five times in its 40-year history.
More importantly, he and his wife Berni just recently celebrated their 40th anniversary on April 7! They have two sons and one six month old grandson. Trey and Julia and their son, Rex, live in Philadelphia and Blake and his husband Patrick live in Kansas City.
We would like to also recognize and thank Berni, for covertly putting in the work to provide us with his biography.