Four ‘Heroic’ Leaders Named to Cooperative Hall of Fame

Washington, D.C.—Credit union advocate David L. Chatfield, former Land O’Lakes Chief Executive John E. Gherty, former Governor of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation Charles B. Gill, and cooperative communications and education advocate Jean Jantzen have been selected for induction into the Cooperative Hall of Fame next spring.

The four cooperative business leaders will be recognized at the annual Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony at Washington’s National Press Club on Wednesday, May 2. The event annually draws a standing-room-only crowd.

The Hall of Fame, the cooperative community’s highest honor, recognizes those who have made “heroic” contributions to cooperative enterprise. “The profiles of these individuals reflect lifetimes of achievement as educators, business and community leaders, innovators, and advocates for cooperative development, both here and around the world,” said Terry Lewis, board chair of the Cooperative Development Foundation, which administers the Hall of Fame.

Cooperatives are democratically owned and controlled businesses that are motivated by service to their members in addition to their bottom lines. Examples include credit unions, food co-ops, rural utility co-ops and farm co-ops.  Hall of Fame nominations are received from throughout the cooperative community and are screened by two committees of national co-op leaders. The board of the National Cooperative Business Association makes the final selections.

‘Roster Tells the Story’

The Cooperative Hall of Fame was established in 1974 by NCBA and is housed in NCBA’s offices in Washington. It can also be visited on the web at www.heroes.coop. “The 2007 inductees join a distinguished roster of over 120 extraordinary individuals already in the Cooperative Hall of Fame, whose lives and accomplishments tell the story of the U.S. cooperative community,” said CDF Executive Director Elizabeth Bailey.

Following are details on the 2007 inductees. For dinner attendance or sponsorship information, contact Bailey at 202-383-5459 or ebailey@cdf.coop.

David L. Chatfield, Retired President & CEO, California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues, Soldotna, Alaska

Chatfield advanced the cause of credit unions here and around the globe in various positions over four decades. Among other things, he is credited with devising the first national political action system for credit unions and with helping to found and lead the Filene Research Institute, the credit union community’s think tank. He also was the first person with credit union experience to serve on the National Credit Union Administration Board, led the effort to enact Alaska’s credit union law, and launched a comprehensive program to build support for credit unions among California consumers and policy makers. Internationally, he helped draft and pass Poland’s national credit union law in 1993.  

John E. Gherty, Retired CEO, Land O’Lakes, White Bear Lake, Minnesota

Gherty retired last year after 35 years with Land O’Lakes, 16 of them as its president and chief executive. During his tenure, Minnesota-based Land O’Lakes was transformed from a regional to a national farmer-owned business, giving producers a powerful presence in the marketplace and a positive voice in the policy arena. Under Gherty, Land O’Lakes’ membership expanded from 15 to 39 states and annual sales tripled. In 1987, Gherty spearheaded a precedent-setting joint venture between Land O’Lakes and Cenex that established a new model for cooperative business activity. He also was an essential driver in the establishment and expansion of Land O’Lakes International, which provides humanitarian and economic development assistance—with a cooperative focus—on a global basis.

Charles B. Gill, Retired Governor and Chief Executive of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation, Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Gill helped shape CFC during its formative years and served as its governor from 1979 to 1995. He helped create CFC as an alternative source of capital for electric co-ops while working in the Agriculture Department in the late 1960s. He joined the CFC staff in 1972 and was tapped to be CFC’s second governor seven years later. Under his leadership, CFC grew seven-fold as a lending cooperative and created a number of institutions that improved the quality of life in rural America. Among them were both the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and the Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative. He also created the CFC Cooperative System Integrity Fund to help electric co-ops fight encroachment on their service areas by for-profit and municipal electric utilities.

Jean Jantzen, Cooperative Communications and Education Advocate, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota

A life-long champion of cooperative communications and education, Jantzen began her career in 1963 as a secretary for one of the predecessor organizations to CHS Inc., now a $12 billion, Minnesota-based food and energy cooperative. A role model for women in cooperatives, she rose through the ranks and was a key player in the 1998 merger between Cenex and Harvest States that created today’s CHS. She retired in 1999 as CHS’s vice president for public relations. Jantzen was a long-time trustee of The Cooperative Foundation and was instrumental in the growth of the CHS Foundation, which today provides more than $1.3 million a year for cooperative education and other purposes. For 13 years, she was also a board member of Minneapolis-based Health Partners, where she played a key role in preserving the member-owned structure of the nation’s largest consumer-owned health plan.

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The Cooperative Development Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization that promotes community, economic and social development through cooperative enterprise.