Orion Samuelson, a legendary farm broadcaster known for his iconic voice and ability to distill complex farm topics into relatable news for urban audiences, died Monday. He was just about two weeks short of his 92nd birthday.
For 60 years, Samuelson was the voice of agriculture on Chicago’s WGN radio, starting in 1960 until his retirement in 2020. His career took him to 43 countries, including Cuba, where he met with Fidel Castro, and to Moscow where he met with Mikhail Gorbachev, according to Wikipedia. Over his distinguished career, he interviewed or met with every president from Dwight Eisenhower to Donald J. Trump. He annually interviewed every secretary of agriculture during those same years and was the host of the popular “This Week in Agribusiness” television show.
Samuelson was born on a dairy farm in Ontario, Wisconsin, and expected to take over the family business, but a leg ailment prevented him from doing so. After six months of radio school, he was hooked on broadcasting as a career. He was a sought-after public speaker with a penchant for telling Ole and Lena jokes that often originated from his home state.
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Samuelson received numerous awards and honors throughout his career including: Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, the Lincoln Medal-the highest award bestowed by the state of Illinois, Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Illinois, American Farm Bureau Federation Distinguished Service Award, Heifer Project International “Man of the Year,” National 4-H Alumni Award, Honorary FFA American Farmer Degree, Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame, National 4-H Hall of Fame, NAFB Hall of Fame, inaugural class of the WGN Radio Walk of Fame, and the National Radio Hall of Fame. At the 1997 Illinois State Fair, Gov. Jim Edgar changed the name of the Junior Livestock Building to the Orion Samuelson Junior Livestock Building as a tribute to Orion’s decades of service to the agricultural youth of Illinois. This list was first reported by WGN.
In 2012, Samuelson published his autobiography, “You Can’t Dream Big Enough”.
In 2014, the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Foundation and the CME Group launched a scholarship in his honor for a student studying agricultural communications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
He is survived by his wife Gloria Samuelson, his children and grandchildren.
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