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by Steve White
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PHILLIPS, Neb. — A humble giant in Nebraska agriculture has died just shy of his 100th birthday. Keith Heuermann built a legacy of farming innovation and gave back in ways that changed people’s lives.
Born in Phillips in 1925, he founded Prairie Valley Hybrid with his father and brother, pioneering early single cross hybrids in 1957.
“I got interested in what we could really be doing if we had hybrid seed corn,” Heuermann said in a video produced by the University of Nebraska. “One of the things we did, we always had an ad in the Nebraska Farmer and we ran that continuously, it didn’t cost hardly anything and through that we kept picking up dealers.
After selling the company, his entrepreneurial drive never faded as he launched BKH Popcorn and in the early days of shopping channel QVC he sold popcorn all over the country.
“They put them up for sale and sold in less that four minutes. They selected our popcorn the best new product from Nebraska and we ended up being vendors on QVC for 11 years,” he recalled.
Keith’s impact extends beyond the farm, providing leadership in community organizations and generous support of education.
Tammy Morris of the Hamilton Community Foundation called Heuermann a “special person”, saying his family established three funds – a foundation trust, charitable trust, and a scholarship fund. Morris said the Heuermanns have provided more than $1.4 million in scholarships over the past 20 years.
Morris said the gifts have been life changing, pointing to the story of Dr. Ben Greenfield. The Aurora graduate suffered a heart attack his senior year of high school and lost his opportunity to attend the Air Force Academy but thanks to the Heuermann family, he received a scholarship to Nebraska Wesleyan that began his journey to med school where he now teaches along with other opportunities.
Morris said Heuermann was fond of saying an education was one thing no one could take from you as he gave back. The Hamilton Community Foundation honored the Heuermanns in 2021 with the Lifetime Legacy Award, recognition Keith and his wife Norma downplayed, as they said others did the work as he also felt the money wasn’t his and needed to be given back.
Heuermann also supported the University of Nebraska including the lecture series that bears his name.
Former Chancellor Ronnie Green said Heuermann was one of the first people he met when he took over the ag program. Green recalls Heuerman as “a quiet, gentle, unassuming farmer” from Hamilton county but quickly learned they shared similar passions for the future of agriculture and their faith and became fast friends.
Green says the Heuermann lecture series is the most significant of its kind in the world highlighting ag issues and Keith was always there in the front row.
Heuermann said he was concerned with rising global populations and agriculture’s ability to feed people in sustainable ways.
“Those lectures really brought forth awareness I thought better than anything else I know of that we need to start thinking how are we going to do this, what’s it going to take to get it done,” he said in a UNL video about the series.
A devoted family man he leaves behind his wife of 62 years, Norma, and their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
Keith Heuerman leaves a legacy of innovation, community and family, planting seeds that have grown deep roots
