Canada's Outdoor Farm Show founder dies

Friday, January 4, 2008

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

But Jocius is perhaps best known for establishing Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock. Begun in 1994, it quickly became known as the country’s largest annual agricultural trade show. He established a second annual show, the Great Canadian Outdoor Expo, at the same location in 2004.

Born in Germany in 1946, Jocius immigrated with his family to Rodney in Elgin County in 1949. There, they grew tobacco and operated a greenhouse.

Jocius graduated from the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC), University of Guelph, in 1970 -- the same year he married Lorie Munce of Leamington.

He would later serve as chair of the college’s alumni foundation. It was one of a number of key positions he would hold within the province’s agricultural community over the years. He was also a chair of the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario, a contributor to the formation of the Enroot Foundation established by the Ontario Institute of Agrologists and a director with the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

Jocius served as executive assistant for two former Ontario ministers of agriculture and food -- the late William Stewart and the late William Newman. He left the ministry in 1978 and worked briefly in the cattle industry before going on his own.

His contributions to the industry were recognized in 1995 when he was named agri-marketer of the year by the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association and, in 1996, an alumnus of honour by the University of Guelph.

“He was just such a visionary guy,” recalls agricultural advertising executive Len Kahn, who worked with Jocius in the early 1990s and remained a close friend. Kahn recalls Jocius traveling to a farm show in the U.S. Midwest. “He saw it and he could just picture it in Canada even though there was nothing like it in Canada at the time,” says Kahn.

While he thought the idea had merit, Jocius first surveyed 300 companies in Canada to see what they would like in a trade show. “He was extremely customer focused -- (as an employer) that’s what he used to drill into us all the time,” Kahn says.

Kahn credits Jocius for giving him his start in advertising and describes him as a mentor. That’s a perspective shared by Jordan Underhill, the show’s general manager.

Underhill was a student at Guelph when he first encountered Jocius nine years ago.

Jocius, chair of the OAC’s alumni foundation at the time, presented Underhill with a bursary from the foundation. At the banquet afterwards they sat at the same table and Jocius invited him to work at the farm show that year. Underhill accepted and has remained with the show ever since.

“It was quite obvious that he was very interested in youth development,” Underhill says. “He really had an appreciation for youth. As a marketer he realized he needed to have an understanding of youth because they are the future and, especially youth in agriculture.”

Jocius is survived by his wife and three children. A memorial service will be held at the River Run Centre at 35 Woolwich Street in Guelph on Friday Jan. 11 at 2:30 p.m. BF