Profile: Ruth Gerdes

Ruth Gerdes has never forgotten the years when massive droughts almost cost her and her husband their farm. Realizing that her family was paying thousands of dollars for an insurance policy that wasn't working, Gerdes began her career in crop insurance at an independent agency in Auburn, Nebraska. Today, she is one of the most knowledgeable and respected agents in the United States specializing in multiple-peril crop insurance and services policies.

Gerdes grew up on a combination ranch and farm in Western Nebraska and attended the University of Nebraska, where she earned degrees in agricultural journalism and animal science. In 1979 she married husband Myron, and the couple moved to his family farm in Auburn where they began their own corn, soybean, and purebred angus farm. Gerdes' first job was at Excel Corp. (now Cargill), where she was the first woman in the country in their corporate sales division.

In 1982, after giving birth to twins, Gerdes quit her job in order to stay home with her children. It was then that droughts in two consecutive years threatened her family's farm, almost forcing them to give it up.

"It was a scary time," Gerdes says. It did, however, make her understand the importance of a good crop insurance policy—and the fact that her family didn't have one. She decided that if she and her fellow farmers weren't being served by their policies, she could do something about it by becoming an agent herself.

When Gerdes started working part time for The Auburn Agency, Inc., they had just a handful of clients. Since then, she has worked her way to partner with the agency, which now has more than 1,500 clients. She has become a star in the industry, and last year she received the Crop Insurance Industry Outstanding Service Award in recognition of her service and outreach to small, limited resource, and socially disadvantaged farmers. Despite her achievements, Gerdes never forgot her motto of always putting the farmer first.

Gerdes' path to success was anything but easy. In 2006, she was diagnosed with carcinoid cancer—a cancer so rare that only 1 in 100,000 people are diagnosed with it each year. There were 22 small tumors growing on her liver, and Gerdes was told that her condition was inoperable—basically a death sentence—but she refused to succumb to the disease.

With the help of several dedicated and brave doctors, in 2007 Gerdes became the first person in America to undergo revolutionary hepatobiliary surgery. Today, she is living tumor-free.

Following the surgery, Gerdes and the Nebraska Medical Center went public with the news of the successful outcome. Gerdes continues to be contacted by people across the globe with questions about her experience.

Gerdes is adamant that her affiliation with Rick and Kim Gibson of Agro National Inc., a company that underwrites crop insurance in 22 states, has been key to both her career success and her recovery from cancer. The Gibsons, Agro National, and Stonington Insurance Company—longtime supporters of a variety of community causes—support the University of Nebraska's carcinoid cancer research, and Dr. Botha has opened a specialty clinic where patients with carcinoid can see a team of dedicated professionals twice a month. And, when one of Gerdes' surgeries fell during sales season, Kim staffed her office. "You don't see a lot of CEOs doing that," remarked Gerdes. "[Rick and Kim] have been partners through all of this."

Gerdes also has enormous respect for the work the two have done for the crop insurance industry, noting that Rick was instrumental in getting crop revenue coverage (CRC) approved. Gerdes herself has been quite politically active, testifying before the House Subcommittee on Risk Management and Specialty Crops in 1997, working the Hill continuously for 20 years, and also playing a role in the approval of CRC.

And, as she continues to fight for farmers, Gerdes worries about the challenges facing today's agricultural industry. She calls Obama's proposed cuts to the agricultural budget "problematic," and adds that, "If we do not restore some common sense in the creation of the agricultural budget, we will go down the same road as the auto and other troubled industries."

And yet, Gerdes has never been one to shy away from a challenge, and she looks forward to continuing to serve farmers facing the same scary situation that she and Myron did years ago. Above all, her years in the industry have taught her to never underestimate the importance of a good crop insurance policy. "Crop insurance is the financial underpinning that prevents the rural economy from suffering a vicious fate...we cannot cripple something so vital to the agricultural economy."