When newly retired Deputy Sheriff John Munk took off his badge, he didn’t have plans to replace it with a fishing pole— not by a long shot. Instead, he jumped on his Walker Mower and took what he’s been doing in his spare time to a different level.

Follow Route 27 south out of Amarillo, Texas for 20 miles and you will pass through Canyon, home of West Texas A&M. Situated on a beautiful 176-acre residential campus, the university has nearly 8,000 students, 252 full-time faculty, and 569 full-time staff members. Working behind the scenes to keep the campus in top shape are Grounds Manager, Larry Bedwell, and Transportation Manager, Bruce Bassett.

What do Vida, Oregon, neighbors John Farkus, Biff Owen, Ted West, Gene Jones, Jim Goodpasture, Kameron Maxwell and David Cousineau have in common? For one thing, on any given Saturday they can be found using Walker Mowers to manicure their landscapes.

Whether they operate one mower or a fleet of 20, lawn maintenance contractors will eventually have to answer these questions: Should I buy a replacement mower and, if so, when is the best time to do so? Or, would it make more sense to repair my old one?

Young people going into business often dream of making it big one day. Dreams are drivers, but few entrepreneurs have the drive that Garrett Faulkner had when he launched Down to Earth Landscaping right out of high school. Now, four years later, the 21-year-old owner says he would like to be one of the biggest landscape contracting companies in the country.

The other day I saw a truck leaving our factory. The thought flashed through my mind that the truck driver’s opportunity to have a job was in part due to the existence of Walker Manufacturing. A further thought was that the Walker operation creates many more jobs than just the 150 employees working under our roof. While economics is a complex subject, and I would not pretend to know all of the workings of an economic engine in creating jobs, it seems pretty clear that businesses like Walker do create jobs and opportunities that boost the economy and raise the standard of living for our citizens. At least it looks that way to me, a farm boy from Kansas.