Minnesota Corn Remembers Gene Fynboh

By Jonathan Eisenthal

Gene Fynboh, of Brandon, Minnesota, died on July 15. He was 83. He was elected to the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council, serving as chair in 2002-03; was a member of the Minnesota Corn Growers, and served on the National Corn Growers board of directors. He was a founding director of the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company—a farmer-owned cooperative, and a pioneering organization in the development of the ethanol industry and served for 26 years on its board of directors.

Fynboh was among the small group of farmers who volunteered countless hours at the Minnesota State Capitol, communicating with lawmakers, to help establish the 10 percent ethanol requirement and the Ethanol Producers Tax Credit, both of which were essential to the early success of Minnesota’s ethanol industry.

In 1970, after service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Gene and wife Kathy settled on and began farming the family’s Stevens County farm, homesteaded nearly a century earlier, in 1877.