AHOF Members archive

William (Bill) Vaags was born in 1934 in the Netherlands and came to Canada with his family in 1948. Bill started his lifelong commitment to agriculture when his parents rented a dairy farm near Dugald. In 1959, Bill and his wife Bertha started their own dairy, switching to hog production in 1961. In 1974, the family took over a 300-sow farrow-to-finish operation, doubling its size within five years. Bill was a leader in the use of artificial insemination and environmentally sustainable farming practices. Bill has been a director of Manitoba Pork since 1974, and served as chairman from 1979 to 1989. He served as a director of the Canadian Pork Council (CPC) from 1981 until 2005. While president, he was...

Ed Tyrchniewicz was born on January 20, 1941, and grew up on a farm at Prairie Grove, just outside of Winnipeg. He attended a one-room, one-teacher school up to grade eight. Following high school at Provencher Collegiate in St. Boniface, Ed attended the University of Manitoba from which he obtained a degree in agricultural economics in 1962. Ed’s love of agriculture and his interest in policy was stimulated by professors such as Clay Gilson and Art Wood. This led him to pursue post graduate training in agricultural economics at Purdue University. Here he was given both the Outstanding MSc Thesis Award and the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award by the American Agricultural Economics Association in 1964 and 1967, respectively. Ed’s career...

Yoshikazu (Joe) Tsukamoto was born on September 12, 1925, in New Westminster, British Columbia. He attended school in Japan, graduating from Nagahama Agricultural School. Returning to Canada in 1941, Joe, as a Japanese-Canadian, lost his freedom through internment. He spent the war years working in the sugar beet fields of southern Alberta, growing richer in experience and stronger in determination. Following the war, he attended Olds School of Agriculture and Home Economics, graduating in 1949. He later attended McGill University where he received both his B.Sc. (1954) and M.Sc. (1962) degrees in Agriculture. Joe married Susan Hitchcock in 1963. They have a daughter, Suyoko. Joe’s career with Agriculture Canada commenced as a summer assistant at the Research Stations at Lacombe,...

Eric Thompson Trotter was born in Masham, Yorkshire, England in 1905 and emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1908 to a farm at Little Souris, Manitoba. In 1917 the family moved to a farm at Alonsa, Manitoba where Eric completed his schooling. He took the Diploma Course in Agriculture at the University of Manitoba from 1929-1931, graduating with the Governor General’s medal and the James D. MacGregor gold watch for highest grade in animal husbandry. Eric was employed as a division manager at the Selkirk Mental Hospital farm from 1932-1942. In 1938 he married Margaret Goodbrand, a psychiatric nurse at the hospital. They moved to Belmont, Manitoba in 1943 with their infant son, Brian. Annetta (Nelson) and Patricia (Austin)...

Harvey Tolton was the third member of a family of six (three boys and three girls). His parents were pioneers. They came from Bruce County, Ontario, and settled on E.1/2 11-11-24 in the R.M of Woodworth. He and Jennie Eleanor (Titmus) Tolton were married in 1919, and raised five children, one boy and four girls. Since then grandchildren and great-grandchildren have become part of the family. Harvey attended: the elementary school, Verity, the Kenton High School, and the Manitoba Agricultural College. He graduated from the College with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. For his outstanding studies, he was the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal. Later in life, he served on the Brandon University Board of Governors for thirty...

Hayden grew up on the family farm near Otterburne West in Manitoba, with his parents, Roy and Elizabeth, and three older brothers, Clayton, Garnet and Wallace. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a BSA in 1949. His “aggie” classmates nicknamed him “Doc Tolton,” as he always had thoughtful and concise answers to questions in class. Hayden’s natural ability to mentor served him well in his first professional job as agricultural representative in Holland, Manitoba. It was there that he met his wife Joan Sundell. Their two children, Tom and Aileen, both chose to follow in their father’s footsteps, obtaining their degrees in agricultural science. The family also includes four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Always committed to soil conservation...

Born in York County, Ontario, Milton Tinline came to the Elkhorn area of Manitoba with his parents. His father, who was a blacksmith by trade, took out a homestead of 160 acres near the town. Tinline undertook to clear and break up this farm. At the age of 26, Tinline enrolled in a college course in agriculture. He had the honor of being the first student to register in the first agricultural college in Western Canada at Winnipeg. Shortly after graduation in 1911, he was appointed as the first assistant superintendent of the Experimental Farm in Brandon. In 1914, he was promoted to the superintendency of the Experimental Farm in Scott, Saskatchewan. He gave outstanding service to this vast farming...

William Joseph (Bill) Strath was born in Souris, Manitoba on July 23, 1928. He received his primary education in a one-room school at South Beresford and his high school education at Souris Collegiate. He attended the University of Manitoba, graduating from the Faculty of Agriculture with a BSA in 1954. There, he met Jean Thomson, also a graduate of the university with a degree in Home Economics. Married in 1952, they returned to the family farm near Souris where they raised four children, Margaret, Barbara, James and Jennifer, and farmed full time until 1980. Service to country and community but mostly to the farmers of Manitoba has been the foundation of Bill’s life. Prior to entering university, Bill had an...