Dave Reiff reflects on 50 years in Fairfield

FAIRFIELD – Friends of Dave Reiff threw him a birthday party on Tuesday night, where they reminisced about the good times they had with Dave ever since he and his wife Diane moved to Fairfield 50 years ago.

Dave is a native of northwest Iowa, having grown up on a farm outside the town of Holstein. When he and Diane moved to Fairfield in 1974, they didn’t know a soul. Dave got a job working for Condon Grain & Feed, which he then purchased from owner Harvey Condon in 1976 and renamed Reiff Grain & Feed.

Twenty twenty-four was a year of painful change and heartache for Dave. Diane passed away on Jan. 13 after a three-year battle with cancer. Dave also bid farewell to his grain elevator business, which he sold to Martin Brett of Vastu Partners LLC. Brett secured an EPA grant to demolish the grain silos and other structures on the land to make way for a new housing subdivision called North Campus Ridge.

Susan Shafer organized Tuesday’s birthday party for Dave. She and her late husband Mark were neighbors to Dave and Diane for 40 years ever since the Reiffs moved to town.

“All these new people moved into the neighborhood, and we became fast friends,” she said.

The party was held at Morrissey Law Office. John Morrissey said that he was one of several people who moved to Fairfield in this time period of 1973-1975, and who still get together 50 years later. Morrissey’s St. Patrick’s Day party has been a staple in the town every year since the mid-1970s, and the Reiffs were frequent guests to it. Diane always brought a hot artichoke dip and crackers to share, and Dave brought that very same dish to share with his friends on Tuesday night. Susan remarked that it was a fitting tribute to Diane.

“Dave and Diane are very special, and the party last night was for Dave but also for Diane, because I wanted to honor her, too,” Susan said.

Dave said he and Diane spent 52 wonderful years together since their marriage in 1971. He was just shy of reaching the 50-year mark of owning Reiff Grain & Feed when he sold it, and while it would have been nice to hit that milestone, he could see that it was time for a change. He and Brett had been in talks for a decade about selling small pieces of land for Brett’s development.

“He was growing, and we weren’t,” Reiff said. “There was no question about that.”

At its peak around 1990, Reiff Grain & Feed could hold 1.5 million bushels, and Reiff was overseeing 15-16 employees. However, as time went by, Reiff could see that selling the business upon his retirement would be difficult. His three adult daughters, Emily, Molly and Lindsay, live in far-flung states, so there was no heir apparent to take on the elevator. Plus, the opening of Heartland Co-op east of Fairfield in 2015 meant Reiff had to compete with a larger facility with access to the railroad.

Brett acquired Reiff Grain & Feed at the end of 2023. He and business partner Doug Bachar began construction on the housing development the following March, on the east edge of the property adjacent to North Campus Village. Meanwhile, Dave moved his belongings out. He found an Amish contractor in Kalona named Melvin Bontrager who wanted to save the buildings by taking them apart and reconstructing them in the Kalona area. Even so, Dave said it was hard to watch as the buildings started coming down in August.

“I didn’t enjoy watching the demolition,” Reiff said. “This was still a functioning thing. It wasn’t totally useless. After 50 years, you get a certain feeling it should go on.”

Dave remarked that this is the first time in 150 years that Jefferson County does not have a central feed mill. He said Fairfield’s feed mill had 30 different owners from 1850 to 1976, and then just one in the nearly half century since then.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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