Jim Faust holds up an old sign one of his agriculture classes made him at his home in Jefferson Township. Faust, 79, continues to be a member of the nine-person Agricultural Land Preservation Board.

JEFFERSON TWP — Over his 36-year career, retired agriculture teacher Jim Faust was a part of just about every agriculture organization in Butler County.

He also taught many of today's prominent names in agriculture in the county — Thiele, Foertsch, Kennedy and Callen among them — to be the jacks-of-all-trades needed to operate a farm.

“If you talk to my wife, she'd say I was never home,” joked Faust, who, at age 79, just stopped farming on his 87 acres about two years ago when the physical demands and equipment costs started to become overwhelming.

“We used to grow our own beef, too. We'd butcher a steer and ¼ of the meat would go to each of our children and ¼ would go to us,” he said sitting in his home, surrounded by accolades for his work in agriculture and mementos from students.

Faust was born in Brackenridge before moving to Jefferson Center in 1943, when his father took a job in the wood car section at Pullman Standard.

He was one of four children, with two brothers and a sister, Shirley. While Jim's brothers Dave, who went to Pullman Standard, and Gary, who worked at ARMCO, followed their father into mill work, Jim Faust chose life on the farm after graduating from Butler High School in 1952.

From high school through college, Faust worked on the Welsh dairy farm, now known as Har-Lo Farms and owned by the Foertsch family.

“I did all kinds of work there: plant corn, plant wheat, plant hay, then harvest it all,” he said.

“I started my education in dairy, and it didn't seem to fit my personality, so I switched to education. That felt like a much better fit for me.”

Faust graduated Penn State University in 1956 with a degree in agricultural education and spent his first eight years on the job in South Butler School District teaching a mix of agriculture, mechanical drawing, called industrial arts, and high school science before taking a full-time job teaching agriculture in 1964.

“When I started, we had an ag mechanics class and technical agriculture,” he said.

“Ag mechanics taught things like welding, small engine repair and electrical work. Technical agriculture was things like fertilization and irrigation. I also taught adult classes in several of those subjects at night.

“Today, I think it's known as ag science. I don't know if they get into everything I got into when I was teaching.”After marrying his wife June and living on another farm for several years, Faust bought an acre along Bullcreek Road in 1966 and cleared it to build their house. In 1986, the couple bought the rest of the 87 acres, where their son now has built a house as well.In 1970, Faust took a sabbatical and attended the University of Arizona to earn his master's degree in ag education, which he completed in 1971. Continuing education was a constant part of the teacher's routine.“I took classes from Penn State, in-service education, especially on the electrical end of it,” he said.“Over the years, the fertilizer program is probably about the same, but the method of farming has changed quite a bit (mostly from till to no-till).”Outside of school, Faust volunteered for most of his career on just about every agriculture-related board and committee he could, including the boards for the Big Butler Fair, the Butler Farm Show, the county Conservation District, Friends of 4-H, Future Farmers of America and the Butler County Agricultural Land Preservation Board.“That was part of the job. I had students who showed animals at each (the fair and the farm show),” he said.“Classroom teaching, it was all right, but I liked the hands-on things.”Faust served as chairman of the junior livestock auction, where a former student once claimed the prize for grand champion market steer. He has been appointed annually to the nine-member Agricultural Land Preservation Board by the county commissioners since the board was created about nine years ago.“Every year we have applicants and we have to screen them,” he said of farmers seeking to get funds from the preservation board.Farms are ranked on their use of conservation and nutrient management, with funding used to permanently preserve them.Faust said the board has about $1.5 million to award to farmers for easements this year.The board already has helped about 40 county farms under this program.

<B>Leadership definition: </b>A leader is “a person who goes out of his way to help others and serves as an example.”<B>Leadership example </b>His former high school agriculture teacher, John Graham, is an example of leadership. “He was involved in just everything. He was chairman of the conservation district for a good many years, too, when he was still teaching.”<b>Name: </b>Jim Faust<b>Age: </b>79<b>Address:</b> Jefferson Township<b>Family:</b> Wife, June Faust; children, Jim Jr., Cheryl and Susan; 10 grandchildren; five great grandchildren<b>Education:</b> Butler High School, 1952; Penn State University, bachelor’s degree in agricultural education, 1956; University of Arizona, master’s degree in agricultural education, 1971<b>Employment: </b>Retired agriculture teacher in the South Butler School District<b>Community leadership: </b>Butler County Agricultural Land Preservation Board

Jim Faust holds up an old sign one of Ag Classes made at his home in Jefferson Twp.