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Salem, Ore. – The Oregon Dairy Farmers Association (ODFA) presented awards during their Annual Dairy Farmers Convention to acknowledge two very deserving recipients for lifelong contributions made to Oregon’s dairy industry. The Community Service Award was presented to Dan and Carol Marie Leuthold.
Dan and Carol Marie Leuthold are a couple that has spent a lifetime dedicated to the dairy industry, to community service, and to each other.
Dan and Carol Marie met when they were young, Carol Marie still recalls “the boy in the blue jacket,” the FFA uniform Dan was wearing when she was 12 years old. She first saw him while attending a 4-H dairy judging event at his family farm in Tillamook and they met again a few years later at an Oregon State University 4-H summer camp, Dan invited her to a social gathering for 4-H members on campus.
Thus began the third of a six-generation Leuthold dairy farm that milks Holstein and Jerseys cows on McCormick Loop Road. Dan and Carol Marie married in 1964 and helped Dan’s father on the farm, but by 1970, Dan, still in his 20s, took over.Four children — Todd, Crystal, Lorrie and Candace — arrived by 1974. Dan now helps son Todd and his grandson, Bryan, manage the dairy. As many of the original families in Tillamook County, Dan’s family is descended from Swiss emigrants. Dan and Carol Marie have 10 grandkids and 12 greats.
Dan and Carol Marie have been long-term members of the Oregon Farm Bureau, serving on many committees and attending State and National Conferences. In 2006, Carol Marie became the first female president of the Tillamook County Farm Bureau andis currently a director on the Oregon Agriculture Education Foundation. Carol Marie is a past president of the Oregon Dairy Women, and volunteers with her church.
Dan served on the Tillamook County Creamery Association Board of Directors for several years. Dan is also a current and longstanding member of the statewide CAFO Advisory Committee with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, representing dairy producers across the state.
Carol Marie recently stated: “We have always been good stewards of the land — land that was passed on to us, and that we are passing on to our son and grandson,not forgetting the good women who stand with them!”
Over the last seven years, Dan and Carol Marie have been involved with the Tillamook Working Lands & Waters Cooperative (TWLWC), a grassroots group organized by Oregonians for Food& Shelter (OFS) and committed to the responsible stewardship of Tillamook County's natural resources. TWLWC has been engaged with numerous tours for elected officials, a booth at the Tillamook County Fair, radio interviews and articles in the local paper.
Dave Kunert, Hampton Lumber, anda member of TWLWC, said he first knew Carol Marie as the Strawberry Lady. Fast Forward about 7 years and he was at a public meeting to address ongoing concerns about misinformation being spread in the county with respect to our natural resource practices. The Strawberry Lady is at the meeting. I learned she’s passionate about policy that impacts dairymen in her county AND she’s willing to put forth the effort to do something about it. Since this date, our group has met monthly and learned a lot about our natural resource practices as well as one another. There are only two reasons Carol Marie misses a meeting: family or dairy/farm bureau meetings.
The Oregon Dairy Farmers Association is pleased to honor Dan and Carol Marie Leuthold as the recipients of the 2023 Community Service Award for their lifetime of service and support to the Oregon dairy community.
