FAREWELL ADDRESS 2020 BRINGS END OF PRESIDENTIAL TERM BUT NOT END OF INDUSTRY ADVOCACY FROM MARK LACEY by 2019-2020 CCA President Mark Lacey been involved in CCA for quite awhile I have watched slate after slate of officers come and go all the while I was gaining an appreciation for the time, and energy they invested trying to protect ranching. I mentioned previously that I almost didn’t have the chance to become a CCA officer. To start with, (some may not believe this) at no point when writing my lifetime goals did I list being CCA President, as a matter of fact I declined to be interviewed on two different occasions for family reasons. Then about seven years ago I was in Visalia for a California Beef Council meeting not really thinking about CCA because I was sliding into age 50, and I thought that window had closed. However, timing can be a funny thing in the sense that jumping off a moving merry-goround is much different than jumping on. Anyway, CCA Executive Vice President Billy Gatlin sees me and asks if I have time for a chat? During that conversation Billy told me he had some ideas about how to make CCA even better and more effective. I was inspired by what Billy had to say, and it reinvigorated my interest in CCA. So, as much as anyone, Billy Gatlin is responsible for my opportunity to contribute, and to fulfill the one CCA goal I did have which was to pay the debt of service I owed to all those that went before me. Well this is the end of the trail for me, and there are many people that helped get me here that I need to acknowledge. First, my wife Brenda, daughters Molly and Katie. Without their support I wouldn’t have done it. My parents John and Dee, their example made a lasting impression on me. My two extremely hardworking loyal employees and spouses Leo and Kim Hertz and Mark and Carolyn Leach without whom I definitely could not have done it. Also, Corky Torix who has driven our livestock truck for longer than I can remember and plus fills in on the Mark Lacey, of Independence, takes the microphone as CCA President at ranch whenever I’m in a pinch. My lifelong friend Sherman Hannah who does everything from the 2018 CCA & CCW Convention in Reno, Nev.
The year 2020 has been one that I think most of us would like to forget. Except I think it is a year that will live in infamy, for more reasons than I can list. 2020 is also bittersweet for me because it is the end of my journey as a CCA officer. The last six years have been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and it almost didn’t happen. The “Big Circle” as I call it started when I was about two years old. I was standing by the corrals with my mother when my father came riding up. I was old enough to recognize my father, but not old enough to know he was a cowboy. At that moment I knew that what he was is exactly what I wanted to be. Little did I know he wanted the same thing, at least I think he did. Anyway it’s my story so we’ll go with that. The facts aren’t as important as the result which is five decades later I have been blessed to live and work in the cattle business where I have had the pleasure to meet, and work with some of the most incredible people in the world. During that time my father impressed upon me the value of the California Cattlemen's Association and the role it plays in protecting ranching as well as the contributions that all the past officers have made. Since our family has
6 California Cattleman December 2020
