Quick Navigation
Main Navigation
About Us
Education & Events
Ways to Give & Membership
Preservation
Shop
Stewardship Stories
A Fire Chief
Ron Thuma has spent a lifetime serving his community as a civic drawing card , an educator , a firefighter , and a model gardener . He taught in a minuscule , Kansas public school before working as a maintenance supervisor at theFlint Hills National Wildlife Refugefor 36 old age .
At the refuge , he do as a jack - of - all - trades and always placed a magnanimous emphasis on teach Thomas Kyd . Ron implemented the Youth Conservation Corps program which provided summer usage for high school students via project - establish erudition activities such as track building and invasive works ascendency .
“ He was just a firm truster in educating youth , ” tell Jack Bohannan , the current project leader at the Wildlife Refuge , “ It ’s amazing the folks who have came back … so many of them have credited him for being successful in their lives just in the work that he did with them in this program . ”1
Ron (left) and his son, Josh, love to spend their summers in the garden with each other.
Josh Thuma remember his father ’s time at the refuge with pridefulness . “ One of dad ’s cooler achievements awards that I do n’t hear him blow about very much ( he skipped the trip to Washington , D.C. , to have this ) but he was in armorial bearing of recycling out at the wildlife refuge , and what was it ? Ninety - something percent of everything that come into that refuge was recycle . All of the oil and hydraulic fluid , all of the cardboard , newspaper , promotional material : everything got recycle . Dad limit that up and made it work.2 ”
The United States Department of the Interior discern Ron ’s exploit by grant him the 2009 Interior Environmental Achievement Award for implementing the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge Recycling Program . He was the only mortal work outside of a squad to be accredit .
In improver to his polar study with the wildlife sanctuary , Ron also worked as a military volunteer fire-eater in Hartford , Kansas , for 35 years , and as its mayor for 15 . “ If I remember the story aright , you became city manager because nobody else wanted to do it , so they just voted you in ! And then you did it for 14 or 15 years , cuz , after that first sentence there were citizenry than ran against him , but everybody just seemed to recall dad was doing a absolutely adept caper , ” say Josh .
Ron (left) and his son, Josh, love to spend their summers in the garden with each other.
Like many avid gardeners , Ron in the first place get a line to garden with his father . Ron started a seed aggregation in the 1970s with a handful of Thuma family heirloom varieties , but soon broadened his collection after joiningJohn Withee ’s Wanigan Associates .
Ron learn about Seed Savers Exchange through an article inOrganic Gardeningmagazine and speedily start participate . Over the years , Ron has listed more than 275 varieties in the Exchange and has stewarded even more in his own garden .
He became one of Seed Savers Exchange ’s first Lifetime Members in 1984 and has reached hundreds of people with his listings . Ron ’s contributions to seminal fluid saving will be appreciated by his own grandchild as well as generations to arrive who will have the chance to experience the seed he steward .
Ron (second from the left) spent 36 years as a jack-of-all-trades at the Flint Hills Wildlife Refuge.
Now go to sleep , Ron makes sure to choke on his beloved of family unit - wide-cut horticulture to his grandchild who view one of Ron ’s prospicient running varieties , the ‘ orchard apple tree ’ capsicum pepper plant , as a treat . Ron initially acquire the ‘ Apple ’ pepper in the early 1990s as trial variety that was commit out to truehearted customer by Johnny ’s Selected Seeds of Maine .
The pepper apace became a Thuma family favorite ; both Ron and Josh grow it in their garden even today . Josh explained that his two - year - quondam girl loves the sweet peppers and suitably eats them whole like an orchard apple tree .
Ron ’s contributions to source saving will be prize by his own grandchild as well as generations to amount who will have the opportunity to experience the seeds he stewards .
“Ron Thuma (the one with the beard) and a goose about to be banded GKL 12/83”
Ron ’s Passion of Christ for gardening remains contagious , despite downsizing in late years . “ Even in retirement — his garden in town here , it ’s the thing of fable . You ca n’t come to Hartford , Kansas , without knowing who Ron Thuma is or about Ron Thuma ’s garden , ” remarked Bohannan . “ The first day I moved here I did n’t even love Ron work out for the Fish and Wildlife Service ; I had n’t met him yet . I saw this bozo laying down in between the row in this little garden , and it ’s right on the main street in township . I saw him , just this really foresightful beard and he ’s position down and push on his helping hand and knees and getting up and he ’s pushing grunge ! … Even today he ’s all up in that garden , even today he ’s out there working in it , day in and day out … he ’s a moderately awe-inspiring guy rope . ”
Even Ron humbly mentioned that in years past he ’s received admire letters in the chain armour from people passing through Hartford , often addressed but to “ The Gardener . ”
Together , Ron and Josh still maintain a meticulous garden and detailed notes of the seasonal happenings in it . Ron lumber his observation ( yield , carrying into action , weather , harvest dates , etc . ) in a figure out notebook computer which is transcribed at the end of the season into an archival ligature .
“Pre-school group learning basic firemanship from Maintenance Worker Thuma PT 9/22”
In gain to the notebooks , Ron maintains further , personalized notes on each variety in a tidy posting file . The 3″x5″ index plug-in aid Ron document the sinlessness and characteristic of each variety from year to year .
“ It ’s just something you ’ve always done , is n’t it ? ” Josh name . Together , they form a closely 30 - year record of Ron ’s horticulture successes and failures , but mostly significantly , are a testament to his honey of spring up thing .
Ron’s Favorite Varieties:
Apple pepperMissouri Pink Love Apple tomatoHenderson Bush lima beanIreland Creek Annie noggin
Learn More:
TV : RonThuma – ‘ Missouri Pink Love Apple ’ Tomato
This conservation work and story was made possible with bread and butter from the1772 Foundation . Originally part of the “ Legacy Donors Exhibit ” featuring a group of gardening masterminds — farmers , artists , teachers , manufacturing plant worker , lawyer , and homesteaders . In their redundant time , they have tracked down , stewarded — and sometimes relieve only — exceedingly rare varieties . Some embark on out of curiosity , some out of frugalness , some in hunting of the best - tasting tomato plant . We go for their stories will leave you excited , and inhale to get your workforce into your garden soil .
Bios spell and video edits by Kelly Loud . consultation and correspondence by Katie Gove , Kelly Loud , Sara Straate , Molly Thompson , Tor Janson , Zack Row - Heyveld , and Toby Cain .
‘Henderson Red’ lima bean
Special thanks to : Bill Minkey;David Cavagnaro;George , Jerreth , and Emily McLaughlin;Kathleen and Bryce Plunkett - Black ; Jim and Kathryn Tjepkema;John Coykendalland Ashley Valentine ; Mike Washburn;John Swenson;Ron , Joshua , and Pam Thuma ; Jack Bohannan at Flint Hills Wildlife Refuge ; andRuss Crow .
Bios written by Kelly Loud . Video redaction by Kelly Loud .
3094 North Winn RoadDecorah , Iowa 52101(563 ) 382 - 5990
‘Tennessee Red’ peanut
Copyright © 2025 Seed Savers Exchange . Images on this site are protect by right of first publication — unauthorized use is not permitted .
Seed Savers Exchange is a tax - exempt 501(c)3 non-profit-making organization dedicated to the preservation of heirloom seeds .
Ron is proud grandfather who loves to share his gardening goodies with his loved ones.
‘Apple’ pepper
Each year, Ron takes detailed notes on the varieties in his garden.
Josh Thuma shows off his father’s separate index file filled to the brim with years of garden knowledge.
“The ultimate goal of gardening is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
