Brand Update 2018: Year in Review

FUNDS SUPPORT YOUNG LEADERS
Since 1999, 76 young beef community leaders
have benefited from the Colvin Scholarship
Fund, named for the Certified Angus Beef ®
brand’s first president, Mick Colvin, and
supported by brand partners through an
annual golf tournament and auction.
By helping fund their education, donors
directly support the next generation at the
farm. It’s an endeavor that inspires brand
partners like Oxford Trading Co., which
became the brand’s first distributor in 1979
– selling this new branded beef to restaurants
and grocery stores at a time when no such
thing had existed.
Charlie Robinson had led the company the
entire time, becoming one of the brand’s
most stalwart champions. So when he made
the decision to hang up his butcher’s apron in
retirement in 2018, he wanted to say goodbye
in the most fitting way possible.
With his cohort and current Oxford Vice
President Ron Rurak, Robinson commissioned
two hand-crafted meat cleavers – one as an
auction item for the Colvin Scholarship Fund,
and one to be on permanent display at the
Certified Angus Beef ® brand headquarters in
Wooster, Ohio.
“We consider them pieces of industrialized
art,” says Rurak. “The inspiration came
from an old carcass splitter I have that
dates back to the 18th century. It took a
tough person to handle one of those. These
are probably the only ones of this size and
quality in the country.”
Zack Jonas, a master blacksmith whose
work has been displayed in the Philadelphia
Museum of Fine Art, forged the blade.
John K. Pease, a master engraver for Smith
& Wesson and Colt Firearms, added the
engraving. Even the case has a story. Built by
designer Kurt Piper, whose work has been
on display in art galleries between New York
and Boston, it’s made from the same white
oak zebra pattern as the cleaver handle.
Purchased by S Foods Inc. of Japan, the oneof-a-kind
piece not only funded grants for
future leaders, but added links to the chain
that binds the brand community together
across roles, continents and generations.
“There aren’t enough words to accurately
convey the gratitude we feel toward Charlie,
Ron and Oxford Trading,” says John Stika,
President of the Certified Angus Beef ® brand.
“Not just for these beautiful works of art,
but for the partnership that has spanned
the breadth of our existence. When we
look at where the brand is today, we owe a
lot of that to people like Charlie and Ron,
who were willing to take a leap of faith on
something that had never been done.”
Grateful, too, are those who are selected for
the grants, like Forker.
“The scholarship is such a blessing,” she
says. “That support ensures young people
like me have the opportunity to continue
their education.”
The support goes even deeper, she
recognizes. Without partners’ efforts
to market and sell the Certified Angus
Beef ® brand, and driving demand for
premium Angus beef, it could not fulfill
its central mission of helping sustain
Angus farming families.
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Trevor and Ty Walter, Walter Angus, Hudson, Colo.
Colvin Scholarship recipients Liz Forker and Michael Cropp with Virginia and Mick
Colvin, the brand’s co-founder and first president for whom the fund is named.