Patriarch of Tri-Cities potato farming legacy remembered for his generosity and leadership
Gale Easterday is being remembered as a generous leader in the agricultural community in Eastern Washington and beyond.
The 79-year-old patriarch of Easterday Farms in Franklin County continued his father’s legacy, leading new generations into farming and helping usher in a state-of-the-art operation.
“We’re going to miss Gale and the leadership that he provided,” said Chris Voigt, the Washington State Potato Commission’s executive director. “(The Easterdays) have been very generous in the community.”
Easterday, who lives in Mesa, died Thursday afternoon in Pasco when he turned onto Interstate 182 at the Fourth Avenue exit heading in the wrong direction and hit an oncoming semi hauling potatoes for Easterday Farms.
The I-182 exit is near the family’s onion packing shed.
Potato industry leader
Easterday’s father, Ervin, first came to the Columbia Basin in the late 1950s from Idaho to farm in the new Columbia Basin Reclamation Irrigation project.
Gale, his wife Karen and their five children and their families have operated farms and cattle operations in Eastern Washington for more than 40 years.
Today, Easterday Farms has more than 18,000 acres of potatoes, onions, corn and wheat, says the company’s website.
Easterday family members continue to be leaders in the potato industry, including serving on the state potato commission and the National Potato Council.
The company’s website said Gale Easterday remained very involved in all aspects of the farms, ranches and packing houses.
The company also diversified from supplying processors that make French fries to packaging and selling whole potatoes. Along with facilities and farmland throughout Benton, Franklin and Adams counties, the business also expanded into Florida and Oregon.
These advances have made Easterday Farms a big player in the potato industry.
“They really almost started with nothing,” Voigt said.
The Easterday family also has played an important role in helping hungry families. They’ve donated thousands of pounds of produce to the needy through Second Harvest.
The nonprofit supplies food to food banks and meal programs across Eastern Washington.
While Jason Clark, Second Harvest’s president and CEO didn’t have the chance to meet Easterday in person, he felt a special kinship and appreciation to him.
“Every time we see a bag of Easterday Farms potatoes or onions come into our warehouses, we will have a fond memory of Gale and his hard work and dedication to the people of this region,” Clark said.
“He will be missed by many, and long remembered by all of us at Second Harvest,” he said.