Carroll E. Summers, Jr. named L.I.F.E. 2005 Rancher of the Year

 

The Laredo International Fair & Exposition has announced the selection of Carroll E. Summers, Jr., as 2005 Rancher of the Year.

The Summers' Martineña Ranch, which was established in 1873 by Evelyn Bruni Summers' great-grandfather Raymond Martin, is located 48 miles northeast of Laredo . El Ranchito, 45 miles southeast of town, was established by her great grandfather A. M. Bruni in the 1880s. Martineña Ranch was the first Webb County ranch registered in the Texas Family Land Heritage program in 1982. The Bruni ranch interests came to Evelyn Summers by her grandparents, Antonio H. and Magdalena Martin Bruni.

“My grandfather was a cotton farmer,” said Carroll Summers, who was born and raised in Orangeberg , South Carolina . He first came to Laredo as an instructor pilot with the United States Air Force in 1956 after having graduated from the Citadel with a degree in civil engineering. Evelyn and Carroll Summers were married in 1958.

“I've always liked the outdoors and gardening, but working on a farm, I used to say, ‘That's one thing I'll never do for a living,'” he said with a wide grin.

The ever-modest Summers does not consider himself a rancher. “I don't wear cowboy boots or a cowboy hat. I'm really more of a weekend rancher,” he said quietly. “I've also worked in truck sales, construction, and the feed store business.”

When Summers returned to Laredo in 1960 after completing his military service, he worked with his brother-in-law Buddy Bruni to manage the family land. “With the blessing and consent of my mother-in-law Lilia L. Bruni, the land was partitioned in 1966, but Buddy and I have continued to work together and to participate in other businesses,” Summers said. “When I came on board, my father-in-law Ernest M. Bruni, Sr., had been practicing good land management and had a good herd of cattle. All I did was try to make things better by lending another set of hands. I was real lucky to learn from Willie Adams, one of the greatest cattlemen in this part of the country. Willie worked for Mr. Bruni and he stayed on with us for 15 more years, teaching us while he worked with us.”

Summers credits Tim Shipton, a friend of his son Robert, and his own friends like Buddy, Oscar Zuñiga, Terry Freeman, and Clayton Burns, with invaluable assistance and good companionship at the ranch. Summers oversees the commercial cattle operation at both Martineña and El Ranchito. Robert Summers manages the wildlife operation at Martineña. Describing the growing importance of their deer-hunting business, Summers recounted that four or five years ago they had entered into a supplemental program for deer to protect and enhance the deer population. He was very appreciative of the work of offices such as the Natural Resource Conservation Services, the Farm Service Agency, and the Soil and Water Conservation District. ‘Through the work of these organizations and the Agricultural Extension Office, we've had a lot of useful tools to learn from,' he said.

“My wife Evelyn is the fourth generation of her people on that land. My daughter Shelley and my son Robert are the fifth. My grandchildren Evelyn Ashley and Courtney Loving Sames and Carroll IV and Bailey Hill Summers are the next. Land is a blessing and a responsibility, a lot of work. You have to care for it. The tie to soil is something far more realistic than money. It keeps you close to the basics. Mother Nature and the Good Lord are in charge. The things you see on a ranch early in the morning -- a newborn baby calf or a fawn -- those things stay with you. I don't worry about bankers, I worry about the nuisance of goldenweed in my pastures,” he said.

Summers has a long history of civic involvement, working with such groups as the Future Farmers of America, the Boy Scouts, and the 4-H Club. He is a trustee of the Methodist Church, currently serves as a director of South Texas National Bank, and has served on the Webb County Appraisal Review Board and as a trustee of the United Independent School District. He is past president of the Border Olympics. In 1987, he portrayed George Washington in the Washington's Birthday Celebration festivities and was named The Laredo Times' “Man of the Year” in 1977. He has been a district director of the Webb Soil and Water Conservation District for 24 years, and in 2002 received its Conservationist of the Year Award. In the same year he was named Conservationist of the Year by the Cola Blanca Big Buck contest. Summers is an active supporter of the Texas Wildlife Association Youth Hunting Programs, hosting with his family three or four hunts a year on the family ranches.

Continually referring to his wife's role in his ranching career and her support of it, Summers praised her parents for their life-long interest in the land. “My main goal was to be a steward of the land,” he said. “I feel like I'm a caretaker for my wife's land. Someone once told me, you could sell it off, put your money in the stock market. But the thought is to keep it together and pass it on to your children in better shape than when you got it.” He added that having good neighbors on adjoining ranches makes the proposition of ranching an easier one.

Summers says he is no different from any other rancher. “We've been through everything everyone else has -- droughts, burning prickly pear, losing livestock -- but it never fails that I feel the relief of getting out there in the brush with the cattle instead of being in town.”