A farmer’s yearly harvest is in the crops they grow, and their lifetime legacy lives on in the family they raise.
That sentiment is embodied in the life of Willard Jack, who died over the weekend after a courageous battle with cancer.
Jack is the patriarch of Silent Shade Planting Company, the 2023 Top Producer of the Year.
Shoulder to shoulder with his family across the rows of their Mississippi crops — cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat — Jack built a farming business after immigrating from Canada in the early 1980s.
He found not just farming prosperity but also a calling to advocate for American agriculture.
Jack was a strong proponent of embracing technology and new practices, using sustainable farming methods, expanding U.S. soy markets and advocating for sound ag policy on Capitol Hill.
During his time on the American Soybean Association board of directors with ASA (2015 to 2022), he was committed to promoting the quality and uses of U.S. soybeans in foreign markets, traveling to Morocco, Nepal, China, France and Belgium to speak with customers abroad. Among his efforts to support soy domestically, Jack led the Biofuels and Infrastructure Advocacy Team and enthusiastically charged Capitol Hill to visit members of Congress during ASA fly-ins, with the list going on.
ASA CEO Stephen Censky says, “There’s a reason ASA honored Willard in 2023 with its top honor, The Pinnacle Award, which recognizes a lifetime of work and leadership of the highest level and dedication to soy. And, there’s a reason we all loved him: It includes not only the respect and appreciation of a farmer devoted to bettering his industry, but also that distinct twinkle in his eye when he was preparing to tell you a funny and enjoy a shared laugh. All of us, both farmers and staff of ASA, will remember Willard fondly and are exceptionally thankful to him and his family for all they have done, and will continue to do in his legacy, for agriculture.”
Jack was a cheerleader for the ASA SoyPAC, encouraging his fellow farmers to get involved by giving, which he did readily in addition to volunteering at the annual ASA SoyPAC auction and spending hours planning for SoyPAC meetings.
He served as the president of the Mississippi Soybean Association and the Mississippi director of the American Soybean Association. He was appointed by three different commissioners of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce to serve on the Bureau of Plant Industry advisory board.
Jack also served as the vice president of Holmes Gin and was an active member of the Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board, the Mississippi Rice Promotion Board, the Rice Council, and the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation.
In addition to the 2023 recipient of the ASA Pinnacle Award, his contributions to agriculture were recognized in 2000 when he was chosen as the Mississippi Farm Bureau Farmer of the Year and in 2001 as the Sunbelt Ag Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year.
Farm Journal reporter Chris Bennett said: “There are millions of U.S. farmers, past and present. There was one Willard Jack: honorable, humble and kindhearted in all weathers. A top-drawer gentleman, first-class in every respect, Jack was a champion of agriculture. He cared nothing of station or status and treated all as equal. Simply, to know him was to love him. RIP.”
As his living farm legacy, his wife, Laura Lee; son, Jeremy; daughter, Stacie; and daughter-in-law Elizabeth, continue to lead Silent Shade Planting Company. He is also survived by his son, Gregory; daughter-in-law, Michelle; son-in-law, Trey, and his seven grandchildren: Emma Grace Koger, Audrey Koger, Andrew Jack, Rebecca Claire Jack, Lydia Jack, Thomas Jack, and Laura Elizabeth “Ellie” Jack; his sister, Marianne Johnstone (Bruce), and brother, Dennis Jack (Judy).
