installation with Marty Tiel, who had started working for Randy while in high school and stayed on as his protégée. Tis joint production and administrative team worked well together and the business continued growing.

Giving Back

In the meantime, the Graffs stepped up their involvement in associations locally, regionally and nationally, giving back to the community and the industry through service and contributions.

Randy served and went through the chairs, ultimately serving as president of the Fort Morgan Young Farmers, a community service organization. Randy and Betsy were local as well as state sponsors for many years of the local and Colorado Chapter of the Young Farmers Educational Association, an FFA based service organization for farmers.

Tey were members of the Rocky Mountain Sod Growers Association and Randy served as president multiple times over the years. Tey were also very active in the Rocky Mountain Regional Turfgrass Association and with both the national and Colorado Chapter of the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA).

Tey donated sod, along with a lot of time, effort and funding, for football, soccer and baseball fields “for the kids,” including the football field for Columbine High School following the tragedy there. Some of that service was in cooperation with the Colorado Rockies players and the MLB Baseball Tomorrow program.

TPI topped the list for Randy and Betsy and they found multiple ways to give back to the association, including the following examples. Randy served as Colorado State Representative from 1988 to 1992. He was first voted to the Board of Trustees for 2002-2003. He served as TPI Secretary-Treasurer for 2006-2007; Vice President for 2007-2008, President for 2008-2009, and a year as Past President following that.

Te Mid-Winter Conference in Birmingham, England, in February 2003 was a highlight for the Graffs. Te sessions and tours were wonderful and the banquet was held at the beautiful Birmingham Botanical Gardens. TPI’s first live auction was held in conjunction with the banquet and Trebro had donated a Stackit harvester.

“Local dancers had just performed, twirling these scarves off their heads and Randy had taken a napkin and was twirling, too. Someone started calling him ‘hanky boy’ and others picked up on it,” Betsy reports. “When the bidding started, Randy was off talking. When the harvester came up, someone was bidding aggressively. Turns out it was Randy, back in the shadows, bidding away. Ten they announced that hanky boy just bought a harvester. Te

20

Tvetene brothers about shook his arm off that night.”

Te Graff’s service has been recognized with awards from multiple organizations. Randy was honored with the Rocky Mountain Regional Turfgrass Association Distinguished Service Award in 2006. TPI’s President’s Leadership Award came in 2007. He also was named Colorado Agribusiness Man of the Year in 1988 and the Ernst & Young Colorado Entrepreneur of the Year in 1995. “I’ve received so much from these associations and their members that I wanted to give back,” says Randy. “It’s humbling to be recognized for what your heart leads you to do.”

Managing the Transition

Randy and Betsy report the business transition discussion started when James and Marty came to them saying they didn’t want to be hired men anymore; they’d like to have ownership. “We asked them to get an appraisal and make a proposal to us,” says Randy. “Tere are infinite ways to sell your business. We wanted to see how they anticipated it would happen. Te actual process is complex and the feedback from other TPI families that had—or were— working through it was extremely helpful to us. Te level of sharing was incredible—on what worked and what didn’t—we are so thankful for that.”

Randy notes the process needs to be creative as the business value can easily be several million dollars and the young generation that wants to buy it typically will be skilled and ambitious, but with very limited funds available. “Te key person in our situation was a good accountant that had been with us from day one. And we all used the same financial planner, who also had been with us for a long time. We always tried for middle-of-the- road decisions—good for us and good for them.”

Graffs also note the timing may be a bit earlier than the current owners were anticipating, but asking the next generation to “wait a few years and we’ll talk” might just

Amy and James are with different companies, but often work together on projects. Photo courtesy of the Graff family

TPI Turf News March/April 2017