Release from Kansas Farm Service Agency
Kansas Farm Service Agency announced Thursday Gwen Brown as a recipient of the Farm Service Agency Lifetime Achievement Award. This national level award recognizes individuals who have more than 30 years of service in FSA and have demonstrated and contributed to the improvement of the quality and service of FSA.
Gwen Brown is the epitome of the dedicated and diligent FSA County Employee. She started her career with the agency in Reno County, Kansas January 1987. Throughout the last thirty-six years, Gwen has been critical to the daily operations in the office. She is a staple in the lives of the farmers and ranchers of Reno County. She has been there from the first day many producers became a part of the agriculture community. She’s been there when they introduced their children to the world, and now she’s helping their grandchildren.
She is the genealogy tree of Reno County. Off the top of her head, Gwen can tell you with just a producer’s name, who they are married to, and their children’s name, spouse, and grandchildren. Her institutional knowledge of how a program started, what it has grown into and how even the technology of the agency has changed is irreplaceable. For her office she is the lead program technician for all reconstitutions and farm changes. So not only does she know our clients on a personal level, but she has watched the agricultural community in Reno County ebb and flow from family to family. She has made every change along the way.
Gwen has outlasted seven administrations, six farm bills, and multiple life changing events; the birth of her children, the Challenger exploding, the Oklahoma City Bombing and September 11th. Through every life changing, world tilting event, she remained a constant in her part of the world. Never wavering, always helpful, unfazed by the markets or mother nature, she was always there for the farmers and ranchers of Reno County. When her own world was shifting under her feet, threatening her health and existence, coming back to work was a focus of her rehabilitation. Even now, she puts the producer first. The day she decides to leave us, is a day that a legend will leave, and many will shed a tear because of the friendships she has built, the community she has aided, and the impression she has left on so many hearts and lives.
Without her dedicating her life to this agency and our producers her county office office would not be what it is today. She has set the standard of excellence for all of us who have come after her. She guides us through the daily struggles of handbook clarification. She is the person to provide guidance when we don’t know where to go in a unique or unknown situation because she has seen it and dealt with it before.