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Tom Turpin, the retired Purdue entomologist, never intended to become a “bug guy.”

April 4, 2019

3 Min Read
Tom Turpin
ENTERTAINING INSECT MAN: How did Tom Turpin, a farm boy from Kansas, end up as a well-known entomologist with appearances on national TV, including late-night talk shows? Read on!

Tom Turpin retired over a year ago as a teacher and entomologist at Purdue University. But he still delights audiences whenever he has a chance to celebrate agriculture. You may know him from the famous cockroach races at the Indiana State Fair, Purdue’s Bug Bowl, speeches where Henrietta the hen perched on his shoulder or one of his programs where he coaxed local folk from the audience into eating fried mealworms.

I’ll never forget the Indian Creek FFA banquet nearly 30 years ago. I was one of his mealworm victims. Eating them wasn’t so bad, but my wife wouldn’t kiss me for a week!

Winding path

“From Farm Boy to Bug Guy” was Turpin’s topic at the recent Johnson County Ag Day Breakfast. “I didn’t start out to be an entomologist,” he insists. “Some kids know what they want to do with their career. I certainly never thought about making a living working with bugs.”

Turpin was a farm boy in Kansas. “I don’t remember my dad farming with horses, but he kept them after he brought home a Farmall F-20 in case it didn’t work out,” Turpin says. “We only used them to pull loads of square bales of hay into the barn. Dad said they would get fat if he didn’t use them for something.”

Turpin recalls helping his dad’s Norwegian neighbor load out horses when he finally sold them.

“We were using a loading chute; we didn’t have trailers back then,” Turpin recalls. “One old mare was blind, but he hadn’t told the buyer. She stumbled on the edge of the chute.

“When the happened, Dad’s neighbor said, ‘She don’t look so good, but she’s a good horse.’

“In just a bit, the buyer figured out the mare was blind. ‘You didn’t tell me she was blind,’ he scolded. “That’s when the old Norwegian said, ‘I sure did — I said, she don’t look so good, but she’s a good horse.’”

Turpin added, “Sometimes you have to listen to what someone is truly saying!”

Bug man

Turpin wrapped up his speech without ever quite explaining how he got from farm boy to bug guy when he didn’t set out to become one. “I was happy as a farm boy, but Dad was still a young man, and there wasn’t enough land on that Kansas farm to support me, too,” he explains. “But I didn’t go to Kansas State as most farm kids did. Washburn College wanted me for sports. Kansas State apparently didn’t think I was up to their standards. So I went to Washburn, and they didn’t have agriculture.

“My favorite teacher in high school taught math, so I became a math major. Big mistake! Later, a professor encouraged me to try biology. I ended up with a dual major. When I finally got to graduate school, a mentor suggested I try entomology, and that’s how it started. Once I finally came to Purdue, my wife, an Iowa farm girl, and I stayed here.”

Tom Turpin became so much a Hoosier, he was named an Honorary Master Farmer in 2008.

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