By Mike Orso
A longtime friend and member of McHenry County Farm Bureau (MCFB), who also served as an affiliated company representative, has wrapped up a four-decade career that took him across the county doing business with farmers, other business owners, homeowners and others.
Gary Miller, 78, of Spring Grove, retired earlier this year as a financial representative for COUNTRY Financial, after 40 years of service to the company. Over the years, he signed up hundreds, if not thousands, of Farm Bureau members.
“The philosophy back then was real people, real answers, real quick,” said Miller. “We were number 1 for fewest complaints. We weren’t the cheapest, but nobody could top that. When people need you, they need you.”
COUNTRY Financial, which provides insurance and other financial services to farmers and other customers, serves as an affiliated company of Illinois Farm Bureau, the state’s largest organization of farmers. So too is GROWMARK/FS, the farm cooperative that provides supplies and other agricultural production and marketing related services to farmers. Miller has deep roots in all.
“Grandpa had a farm that was two miles from our house in town, I was there as much as I could,” said Miller. “I started to work for Jack Schmitt, Spring Grover farmer, about 1958, still in grade school. My dad had 38 years as a petroleum salesman with FS.”
A 1965 graduate of Richmond-Burton High School, Miller secured an associate degree from DeVry University. He custom farmed, managed the former Lost Valley ski hill in Spring Grove until it was sold, and the former Filtertek coffee filter manufacturing plant in Fox River Grove. The late Jim Keefe of Woodstock, who Miller considers a mentor, convinced him to join him and other representatives at the local COUNTRY branch, then headquartered at the MCFB building on McConnell Rd. in Woodstock, during the mid-1980s.
“After two years, COUNTRY’s philosophy changed,” said Miller. “They said, ‘We don’t want all the guys in one office anymore. We want you guys in the towns.’ Me and two other guys went to McHenry.”
From the COUNTRY office he helped open in downtown McHenry, he secured services for his customers that ranged from crop insurance to help protect against such things as drought and flood damage for farmers, to facility and cargo protection insurance for other business owners, and property, auto and life insurance for county residents. Up until this year, if you purchased COUNTRY Financial property products or services, you also became a member of Farm Bureau.
“I didn’t advertise a lot, I answered my phone all of the time,” said Miller, on how he obtained new customers and members. “I worked Saturdays, I worked on Sundays. I didn’t care. You’re paying me, I owe it to you.”
Miller recommends examining an insurance and other financial services company’s ratings before purchasing services and other products.
“In today’s world, they better make sure the company they are going with has the ratings that mean something,” he said. “Id’ probably go to Consumer Reports and read about the bottom line. They tell you what the company’s operating expenses are.”
Some of Miller’s professional colleagues agree his work ethic and trust will be missed.
“He could always talk them off the ledge,” said Linda Davis, of Richmond, who has worked with Miller in the COUNTRY Financial office in McHenry since 2010. “He was generous with his time, and always put family first, whether his or his staff’s.”
Dan Volker’s, MCFB Manager, believes Miller may have actually signed up more Farm Bureau members than he has done over the years.
“We always had the same mutual idea,” said Volkers. “You take care of your clients or your members as best you can and they stick with you.”
Miller calls it “magic.”
“You can take all the classes you want and have all the initials after your name, that’s nice,” he said. “But the bottom line is, your guy is looking for you and has a problem, you take care of the problem.”
Gary Miller, former COUNTRY Financial representative based in McHenry, shows off his special antique FS fuel pump topper turned lamp. Miller’s father, Daniel J. Miller of Spring Grove, served 38 years with FS, and Gary Miller served 40 years for COUNTRY, both Illinois Farm Bureau affiliated companies.
An MCFB newspaper clipping from the early 1990s notes Spring Grove native Gary Miller’s work for COUNTRY Financial and Farm Bureau. “Some of the best and worst times when you lose somebody, and you have the money to sit at the table and widow’s and kids start crying,” said Miller about some of the high and low times during his career. “They had no idea that dad had life insurance. (I had) a bunch of them.”
Gary Miller has participated in many MCFB antique Tractor Treks over the years. “We sold a lot of business because our company was the best in claims,” said Miller. “It doesn’t take long for that word to travel.”