Glen Stade, the brother of Stade’s Farm and Market owner in Johnsburg, died on Tuesday night, friends and officials confirmed.
McHenry County Coroner Michael Rein confirmed Stade died on Tuesday at the hospital. Rein did not provide a cause of death.
Two of Stade’s friends described him as accommodating, hard-working and kind.
Ringwood farmer Kevin Bauer, who worked with Stade and considered him a friend, called him “one hell of a guy” on Wednesday. He said he learned of the news Wednesday morning.
“I don’t know what to do with myself,” Bauer said. “I just got to go do something different to get my mind off this.”
Stade and Bauer partnered on a number of things over the years, including hosting tractor rides and end-of-season farm dinners, he said. Bauer said Stade has been a titan in the area for a long time.
Ringwood farmer Mike Hogan called him a “superman,” who would help people “any which way he could” no matter what problem they had.
“You couldn’t ask for a better friend, and you couldn’t ask for a better businessman,” Hogan said. “He was very honest and very upfront.”
During harvest season Stade could get “real rattled,” Bauer said. He often wouldn’t get enough sleep, calling him a “one-man show.” Hogan said something similar, saying Stade would never take any help, saying he had to do everything by himself.
“He’d work 24/7 if they’d let him,” Bauer said.
Much of Stade’s work consisted of working on the granary at a farm separate from Stade’s Farm and Market, Bauer and Hogan said. Hogan said Stade “lived” for the granary, and would be there any hour of the day.
“It’s a great loss,” Hogan said. “It’s a shock. To know you won’t see his smiling face anymore, or you won’t be able to stop and talk to him.”
As a friend and community member, Stade organized a convoy of tractors as a tribute to farmer Tom King when he died in 2015, Bauer said. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks of him. About 50 tractors showed up coming from “all over the place,” Bauer said.
Bauer hopes he might be able to organize a similar one for Stade.
“I would like to do it for him,” Bauer said.
Stade found himself embroiled in a legal battle in the 1990s when he was accused of selling off other farmers’ grain to pay off his own debts, according to archives of the Chicago Tribune.
As a result of the case, he was ordered to pay nearly $900,000 in restitutions, and was put on probation for four years, along with having to serve periodic imprisonment in the McHenry County Jail, court documents show.
The Stade family could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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