Photo by Tom Campbell

Tom Capper didn’t give up the farm, but his specialty now is the seed business.

Tom Capper, BS ’63, expected to spend his life working the family farm in Pulaski County, Indiana, but an interest in seeds led him to help two seed companies, Seedex and Prairie Seeds, grow from local to national ownership during the past 25 years.

Bob Cline, Specialty Hybrids company agronomist, has known Capper for 15 years as both a friend and a business partner. He speaks highly of Capper’s passion and talent for seed sales and customer service.

“Tom is a good guy and an excellent seed salesman,” Cline says. “He prides himself on high customer service and works to make sure that his customers are investing in the right product for their needs.”

Capper will tell you that his life had revolved around farming, raising cattle, involvement in the Methodist church, and being a 4-H leader until he got a call from a friend in 1983.

“Through years of farming, I had become very interested in new innovations in seeds. I like knowing what is coming down the pipeline,” Capper says. “John Henschen, a good friend, had started Seedex and asked me if I had ever thought of going into the seed business. I told him that I wasn’t a salesman, and he said that was exactly what he was looking for.”

Capper was hooked.

His interest in agriculture, livestock and seeds began years earlier when he was growing up in Star City, Ind. His family is originally from Chicago, and his father joined in the Boys’ Working Reserve during World War I because he was too young to serve. The Boys’ Working Reserve was a way for young boys to help on farms during the war. Tom’s grandfather owned farmland near Star City, and Tom’s father worked there during the war.

Tom’s dad, John S. Capper Jr., attended Purdue from 1921 to 1922 and got married in 1923. Three years later, John Capper bought the Star City farm, built the family farmhouse and became a farmer.

Many of their friends and family thought they were crazy to move from Chicago to rural Indiana, and that they would never last.

“Lots of people said my mother would never make it more than six months in Star City, but she lasted 60 years,” Capper says.

As a child, Tom was very involved in 4-H and livestock judging. When the time came to go to college, Purdue was an easy choice.

“I wanted to go to Purdue because it was the best agricultural school in the nation and because my father had attended,” Capper says.

He majored in animal sciences and agricultural education and participated in numerous judging contests. After he won the intercollegiate livestock judging contest, he was invited to be on the Purdue livestock judging team. He was the only married student on the team. (He had married Tressa Sayers during his junior year.)

After college, he and Tressa returned home to take over the family farm, and they got involved again with 4-H as club leaders. His interest in seeds also began to grow because of his role in the family farm.

One of his fondest memories from being a 4-H leader is working with four boys to create a livestock judging team. With Tom as their coach, they won the state 4-H livestock judging contest and competed at the international 4-H livestock judging contest in Chicago.

“We finished fifth out of 32 teams,” Capper says. “We were the only 4-H judging team whose members were all from the same 4-H club. The rest of the teams, from each state, had picked team members from all over the state.”

Tom and Tressa continued to farm and raise their two children, Tammy and Chad, who were both 4-H members, and spent their weekends at Purdue football and basketball games.

Capper

Capper says his time at Purdue and his involvement in judging provided him with many friends and connections throughout the agricultural industry. In 1983, he got that call from one of those friends about Seedex, a start-up seed company. Capper thought it would be a great experience but wasn’t sure he wanted to get involved because of the demands of the farm.

“I decided to try it for a year,” he says.

“Because it was small and still growing, I wasn’t consumed with the seed company until 1990.”

He continued to farm and work as a partner and district sales manager for Seedex until the company merged in 1990 with Stine Seed Co. That’s when Capper decided to devote 75 percent of his time to the seed company and less to farming. His daughter and son-in-law took over the family farm.

He spent the next 10 years with the national company, until another opportunity came knocking.

In 2000, Bob Cline asked Capper to join him in starting Prairie Seeds. At age 59, Capper decided to leave his familiar position and start something new.

In the spring of 2006, Capper and Cline sold their shares in the research and marketing departments of Prairie Seeds to American Seed Inc., a subsidiary of Monsanto. At the same time, they merged Prairie Seeds with Specialty Hybrids, Lafayette, where Capper now is field sales manager.

Capper keeps in close contact with the agronomic specialists at Purdue, avidly reads Purdue agronomy literature, and is still just as interested in seed genetics as he was in 1983. He still finds time to enjoy activities on the family farm and follow his five grandchildren in their academic, athletic and 4-H activities.

Tom’s oldest granddaughter, Tiffany, entered Purdue in the fall of 2005, making her the fourth generation of Boilermakers in the Capper family. His daughter, Tammy (Tiffany’s mother), graduated from Purdue Agriculture with an associate degree in 1986 and a BS in ’96. Tom and Tressa are 30-year members of the John Purdue Club.

“My Purdue experiences have greatly impacted my life and my family over the past 40 years,” Capper says. “Everything I do and love is tied to Purdue.”

Contact Capper at tcapper@pwrtc.com