The Kansas FFA Foundation recognized four new members of its Board of Trustees at the 88th Kansas FFA State Convention, June 1-3, 2016, on the Kansas State University campus. Trusteeship in the Kansas FFA Foundation requires a genuine desire to serve FFA and agriculture education and to promote it to those outside the immediate agricultural education community. The new members are Larry Steckline, Luke Oplinger, Yancy Wright and Randall Galle.

Larry Steckline was born and raised on a farm near WaKeeney, Kan., and is an active FFA member. His agricultural roots led him to become manager of the Wichita Livestock Market Foundation in 1965. In 1967, he began his television broadcasting career as farm director with KTVH in Wichita. In 1968, Steckline began broadcasting agricultural news on KFRM‐AM, and he spent 45 years on television and radio. He has received invitations from Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton to discuss agriculture issues at the White House and has traveled around the world with U.S. Agriculture Secretaries John Block, Ed Madigan, Clayton Yeutter and Dan Glickman.

In high school, Luke Oplinger was a member and officer of the Riley County FFA chapter, excelling in his Crop Production SAE and leadership activities. After graduating with a degree in hotel and restaurant management, Oplinger served in managerial roles at Famous Dave’s, Jose Pepper’s and Pioneer Communication. Oplinger now co-operates Spring Creek Farms, based out of Jewell, Kan., which was started by his father and is one of the largest farming operations in the state, producing corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum in three Kansas locations.

Growing up in an Oklahoma farming family, Yancy Wright was active in 4-H and FFA. He attended Oklahoma State University and earned a B.S. in plant and soil science and a M.S. in agricultural economics. As a student, he worked with wheat agronomists to implement genetic improvements specifically designed towards the improvement of wheat varieties and production practices. Wright began his career with John Deere, first serving as a crop systems specialist and then as senior sales and service marketing representative for the John Deere Seeding Group. He has been in his current role of territory sales manager for John Deere for five and a half years, serving three of those years as a liaison to the Kansas FFA Foundation.

While in FFA, Randall (Randy) Galle served as a chapter reporter and president. He received his State Farmer award and was the State Proficiency award winner in Farm and Homestead Improvement in 1981. He attended Kansas State University majoring in agriculture mechanization. Galle served on the Ag Advisory board for the Moundridge–Hesston chapter for many years. With his passion for farming, he continued to farm nearly 400 acres of wheat while also working in various operations management positions with The Bradbury Company in Moundridge and American Maplan Corporation in McPherson. His farming operation continued until 2007 when Galle joined the Krause Corporation as director of operations manufacturing ag tillage equipment in their Hutchinson, Kan., facility. Galle is currently the director of processing services for Steel and Pipe Supply, Inc. headquartered in Manhattan, Kan., where he lives with his wife, Terrie.