Postcard

To Michon from Ernie Schank

This postcard contains a picture taken in 1958 of my grandfather, L.C. “Roy” Schank, and 10 American Farmers Degree recipients from the Churchill County Chapter of Future Farmers of America, of which he was the advisor between 1929 and 1956. Back Row L to R: Bill Lee, Earl Harriman, Verl Hendrix, L. C. Schank, Louie Venturacci, Cyril Schank, Lonny Currie. Front Row L to R: Mario Peraldo, Virgil Getto, Bill Bell, Don Travis. Verl Hendrix, Virgil Getto, and Don Travis also served as National Officers in FFA. Louie Venturacci was a Star American Farmer in Livestock Production. As a side note, Ted deBraga received his American Farmer Award the year after my grandfather retired and should have rightfully been in the picture. All the gentlemen in the photo have passed away, and all have left a tremendous legacy in the Churchill County agriculture community. All of them today, except Mr. Curry, have posterity involved in agriculture in this community.

L.C. Schank went on after retirement to work for the U.S. Department of State at a post in Baghdad, Iraq, teaching teachers of agriculture in that country how to teach. When the government of Iraq was overthrown, he returned to Fallon. He won a seat in the Assembly of the Nevada Legislature. Then, he spent his last five years of professional service as the Director of Vocational Education in the Nevada Department of Education. 

In 1964, he returned to Fallon from Carson City and served a term on the Churchill County School Board of Trustees. I was a freshman in high school in 1964, and he was a substitute teacher for Mr. Howard Hutchings’s ag class. Mr. Hutchings was very ill at the time. It was my privilege to have my grandfather as a teacher and to spend almost every day until he died in 1980 under his tutelage. 

Editor’s note: The Iraqi government overthrow referenced above by Ernie Schank took place on July 14, 1958. 

More from Michon: 

“In Focus,” Volume 3 contains a reprint of an essay written by L. C. “Roy” Schank and included in a book entitled “Inside Nevada’s Schools:  A Challenge for the Future” (1976). The essay describes the challenges faced by L.C. when he began teaching Ag classes at Churchill County High School in July 1929. His salary was $165 per month. His biggest challenge was turning what he called “a dumping ground for unruly students” into a platform for success. “We had many field studies such as grafting and pruning fruit trees, judging, branding, dehorning, and castrating cattle, hogs, and sheep. We culled chickens and observed new farm machinery and new farming methods…They learned parliamentary procedure and public speaking….The boys entered State Contests in shop skills like welding, tool sharpening, and figuring bills of materials. They always came home with a lion’s share of the trophies.”

His essay reads like an enlightened instruction manual on “How to Teach.” As his grandson notes, his legacy lives on.

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