From staff reports STILLWATER – Oklahoma State University Extension Grain Market Economist Kim Anderson is set for retirement from OSU on July 31. As a crop market expert, he has held a sales and marketing class positively impacting the lives of countless OSU students.
Raised on a Muskogee County dairy farm, Anderson attended Connors State College briefly before he was drafted into the U.S. Navy for four years.
After his time in the Navy, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from OSU. Anderson would continue his time with OSU, earning a master’s degree in agricultural economics, and eventually, a Ph.D.
Thereafter, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky, to pursue the role of Assistant Extension Professor at the University of Kentucky. In August of 1982, Anderson accepted a job as the grain marketing specialist at OSU.
Much of his early career included traveling across the state and talking with people within the agricultural industry. In 1998, Anderson began teaching in the classroom.
“I started the sales course in January of 2001, and I have completed 23 and a half years this last semester,” he said.
Over his years teaching, he said he has witnessed a drastic change in technology but relatively similar students. Aside from sales, Anderson teaches students how to learn, because he knows every student learns differently.
“They are sending us the best and the brightest,” Anderson said. “They are sending us kids that, for the majority of them, they want to learn.”
He said that he will miss the people he has worked with and the students he has helped.
“It is so humbling,” Anderson said. “I had the opportunity to impact and help prepare 220 young people a year, and I did.”