Meet your neighbor: Dave Tandy

Meet Winfield resident Dave Tandy, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday and has spent 54 of those years living in Winfield.

Dave and his family moved to Winfield in 1970 after Dave purchased the Hillyard Implement Company and became Winfield's John Deere dealer.

"I was the owner/manager of the John Deere store for 25 years," said Dave.

Dave was born in Denver, Missouri, the only child of W.C. and Deane (Craven) Tandy. One day, Dave asked his dad why he didn't have any brothers or sisters.

"My dad said that after I was born, he looked at me and then told his mother, ‘If we can't do any better than that, we'll just quit!'" said Dave with a hearty laugh and with his self-esteem obviously unharmed.

Dave was a country kid living on a large livestock farm, doing "child chores" until his family moved to town. He attended a one-room country school until third grade when his family moved to Grant City, Missouri, in 1944. There he attended Worth County R-3 school in Grant City where he graduated from high school. From sixth grade through high school, Dave held a variety of jobs. He worked in the meat department of a Hy-Vee, in a funeral home and in construction.

Following high school, Dave enrolled at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri, with the intent of becoming a mortician.

"My grandfather was a mortician," explained Dave, intending to follow in his footsteps.

Fate stepped in when Dave heard the Air Force was looking for pilots and decided to enlist. Dave spent 13 months at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, Texas, learning to fly heavy multi engine planes. He spent the years 1956-1961 in the service. He was stationed at Floyd Bonnet Air Force Base at Long Island, New York, during his career in the Air Force, where his mission was flying cargo and troop carriers to various destinations.

"I've been very lucky to do the amount of traveling that I have done," said Dave, adding, “This is due to my military experience, plus my job with John Deere. I've been all over the Far East, Europe, the Caribbean, and South Pacific."

He lived in Missouri and Illinois before settling in Winfield.

Using the skills he learned as a pilot, after being discharged Dave rented a plane from the local airport and decided to give his mom a buzz. And buzz he did, back and forth over their house.

“Mom never came out, but when I got home that night she said, ‘Some fool was buzzing over the house this afternoon. I wonder who it could have been?’ ‘I don’t know,’” Dave answered innocently.

When Dave was discharged in 1961 and on his father’s suggestion, he returned to Maryville and finished college. After graduating from college, Dave was hired by John Deere in Moline, Illinois, where he worked for about 2.5 years, first as a trainee, then as a zone manager and later was promoted to territory manager and transferred to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

"Where's that?" asked Dave, who had never heard of the town. During his first six weeks as a resident of Mt. Pleasant, he lived at the Iris Motel while looking for a more permanent location. He found a home owned by an elderly couple who rented him an apartment in their home where he lived for about a year.

Dave said that John Deere was a great place to work, and he had nothing bad to say about his time there. He did share one rather unique mindset (being a rather straight-laced company at the time), which was the company thought it was best for their employees to be married and settled into family life. The fact Dave was not married seemed to have no effect on his budding career as he was quickly moved up through the ranks.

However, it may have been reassuring to his boss when Dave soon met and married Marilyn Boyd from Hudson, Iowa.

"We met at Porky's Supper Club in Waterloo, Iowa," said Dave, adding, “The food was excellent. It was one of the most popular places in the area at that time."

Apparently, Dave was impressed with more than just the food there. Dave and Marilyn were married on May 21, 1966, in Waterloo, Iowa, and she passed away on January 7, 1997, in Mt. Pleasant.

Following their marriage, they lived in Mt. Pleasant for a short time before Dave was transferred to Rockford. They lived there for 5.5 years, and both their children were born there. Dave purchased the John Deere business in 1971 and they moved to Winfield, which became their permanent home. Both their children are graduates of WMU.

They were married 30 years and are the parents of Scott D. Tandy who lives in Vinton, Iowa, and works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Daughter Sara Beth (Tandy), Scherr (Dan) lives in Winfield and works at the Iowa Department of Corrections in Mt. Pleasant.

"I'm a proud papa to five grandkids, Lauren (Tandy) Ehlen, Rachel Tandy, Ana Schurr, Seth Schurr and Isaac Schurr," said Dave, adding, "I think being a grandparent is a great job. You have so much more time to spend with grandkids than you did with your children."

Recently, his son Scott became a grandpa, making Dave a great-grandpa for the first time to Maxine Ehlen.

In addition to having more time to spend with his family since he retired, Dave said he has more time to do projects around the house and take care of his yard.

"I really don't have any hobbies, maybe eating and watching TV," he said.

When asked if he could cook, Dave answered with a firm "Yes" and said spaghetti is his specialty.

"When we first moved to Winfield in 1972, it was a fairly busy town, two or three restaurants, drug stores, variety store, furniture store, grocery stores, gas stations, and more. Then it started to decline, but today it is starting to rebuild. Good changes in Winfield today are a good restaurant, golf course, pool and new businesses opening," he said.

As for the future of Winfield, Dave said, "I would love to see Winfield keep on growing, more new businesses, new housing and more social engagement."

Dave said the biggest surprise that has happened in Winfield was the new pool.

“It is super good, and a Godsend for the kids,” he said.

You can't own a business for 25 years and not have a few stories to tell. Dave said there are too many stories related to his years as owner of John Deere to recall, but one Dave recalled, "I had one employee that, as the old saying goes, wasn't playing with a full deck. He asked for the day off, and said he was going to Iowa City to have his head looked at. I told him to go because 'I'm sure they will find it interesting.'"

Another incident that Dave recalled wasn't related to his business, but to a convenience store where he spent some time working while he was in college. Because the convenience store was right across the border in Maryville, and Missouri was an “open state,” many Iowa residents took advantage of the convenience of hopping over the border to buy some of their "supplies." Dave recalled one such customer who was a regular.

"He had white hair and a white beard, and his face looked like it had been laid out in the sun for too long,“ Dave said. ”I figured he was at least in his 70s so I asked him how old he was. He said he was 42. To say I was shocked by his answer is an understatement. I couldn't believe it. It still sticks with me when I realized what his lifestyle could result in."

When asked why he likes living in a small town, Dave replied, “I love living in a small town. You know everybody, people are friendly, people will help you and are glad to do so. Also, we are lucky to have the golf course and new swimming pool plus two or three new businesses in our town.”

Dave has contributed to his hometown by serving on both the city council and was on the Board of Directors for WARC (Twin Lakes). He attends the United Methodist Church where he has been a member for 53 years.

Something Dave has noticed, "You don't see many cars in town, with Mt. Pleasant only a short distance away."

Winfield is Dave's home base, but he said, "I have been very lucky to have had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling“ and is also thankful for a lifetime of good health. However, he still has a full bucket list and one of the things on it is, “I would like to drive a Formula 1 race car."

Dave said his two pet peeves are “filth and stupidness." The one thing that Dave would change is "be either on fast time or regular time year around!"

"One thing that I know now is you cannot please everyone, no matter how hard you try," said Dave, who also has this advice for today's youth, “Get a good education, set a goal, work hard, be honest and fair, and have fun!"

Today, Dave lives across the street from Sara and her family who live in the home that Marilyn and Dave built soon after moving to Winfield.

The names Dave Tandy and Winfield fit together like peanut butter and jelly. It is hard to imagine one without the other. Thank you Dave for sharing your story. We wish you many more years as a Winfield resident.

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