The Matador Co-operative Farm’s first chair and one of its founders, Lorne Dietrick, died last week. He was 89.
“Idealism and practicality must always travel together,” he wrote in his 1988 memoir, Matador Ð The History of a Co-operative Farmer, of the province’s still thriving co-op farm at Kyle, Sask.
Before the Second World War, Dietrick had been the first manager of the Leroy, Sask., farmer’s co-operative.
After two years in the Royal Canadian Navy he returned to the province and completed a diploma in agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan.
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While there, in 1946, he became involved in an ambitious project to convert the large, aging and by then provincially owned Matador Ranch into a co-op farm for returning veterans. There were 20 titleholders on the 10,000 acre farm.
He went on to be the first chair of the Federation of Production Co-operatives and held that post for 19 years until 1967.
Dietrick was active in the Canada China Friendship Association and travelled to Asia frequently, establishing a Chinese farmer exchange program in 1979.
He coached local sports teams and served on the United Church’s rural life committee.
