With his previous experience in the family sod operations, Daniel was confident he could produce high-quality turfgrass. And, being a Michigan boy, he harvested sod in a 24-inch roll which was easier to install and had fewer seams than the 16- or 18-inch rolls of his competitors. In 1990, Daniel began renting 360 acres across the southern boundary of the property he had purchased. He could water it from his existing water source by running pipe across the fence line.
“We were making progress financially and felt stable enough to start our family,” says Daniel. Sara was born in 1992 and Wallace in 1995.”
At the end of 10 years, in 1999, Daniel had made every payment on that initial loan, but because of the stringent terms, almost all of the funds had been applied to interest with minimal reduction of the principle. Meanwhile, in those 10 years, he had established himself in the community and built a profitable business. “I was now a good prospect for traditional farm lenders,” says Daniel. “After reviewing the options available, I secured a 10-year loan with Farm Credit Services in Ohio at the rate of 8 percent, amortized over 10 years, with no prepayment penalty. Te entire note was paid off in 10 years.”
Kids – The School Years
Tere are advantages to growing up on a sod farm, including lots of space for the bike riding Sara enjoyed.
Daniel and Jamie chose local private Catholic schools for their kids, first grade through eighth grade, and then a ninth through twelfth high school. Tat was a good fit for both, but in very different ways. “Our daughter Sara was our rule-follower, an excellent student, and deeply grounded in her faith. So much so we thought at one point she might
decide to take her spiritual vows,” says Daniel. “Instead, she opted to follow Jamie’s path and become a registered nurse. We took Sara around the country to look at colleges and included Wallace in those trips. Sara decided on Te Ohio State University and thrived there.”
“Our son Wallace is very independent, headstrong, and incredibly smart, a think-out-of-the-box guy. When he was in grade school he was building computers, intranets, and internets. He won an Xbox 360 and used it to further his computer expertise. He was buying used computers on eBay, fixing them, and selling them at a profit, an early
20
sign of his entrepreneurial abilities. When we upgraded the farm’s workstations and servers, working with the company that did the servers for Trinity in Texas, Wallace was like a bug attached to the technician. He’d ask for the old server and totally rebuild it for his own system, learning by doing.”
Tat became a pattern. Daniel would upgrade the business system every three to four years and Wallace would get the old servers to rebuild. Daniel says, “He’s an intuitive learner and I wanted to encourage that. When he started asking me to buy him specific components, I’d always ask, ‘What are you going to learn from this?’ If he could justify the purchase, I bought it for him. By Junior High, he had his servers up and running. Also, while he was in Junior High he asked me if I expected him to follow in my footsteps. I told him I wanted him to follow his dream. In my experience, it’s those who have fire in their belly for what they are doing that make it a success, and that’s what I told him. And I encouraged him to follow his own dreams.”
By Junior High, Wallace was consistently cracking the code to override the school’s computer system. Ten in high school, it only took him four days to breach all the passwords. Midway through the year, the technology teacher offered him a job to catch his cohorts breaking in. Daniel says, “Tat summer the school replaced their server without backing up their data. Te new server would not talk to the old drive. Te tech teacher was stumped. Te diocese tech experts were stumped. Wallace figured out a way to get the data off the old drive and onto the new server. It took him a week. During that time, he also participated fully in Boy Scouts and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout on his own.”
Always a high-achiever in computer-related endeavors and scouting, Wallace enjoyed reaching this plateau with his Dad.
Despite all those college search trips with his sister; Wallace found his own match. He decided on Dayton University, a private Catholic College in Dayton, Ohio. Te first time Daniel and Jamie saw the college was the day they moved him in. While other students were doing the orientation process, Wallace put on a suit, went to
the campus computer center, and got a job. He also served as a resident assistant (RA) and as a Fellow which paid his room and board. Te Eagle Scout, RA, and Fellow were three big people skills that gave him an advantage in landing three summer internships with General Electric (GE) Aviation and ultimately a position there. With his combination of jobs, Wallace paid his way through college, graduating with minimal debt.
TPI Turf News January/February 2025
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