Dan Meyer, supervisor with Lafayette Tent & Awning, died on July 14. Meyer was a longtime friend of both the Farm Progress Show and Hay Expo, where he supervised tent construction for longer than most can remember.

Says Matt Jungmann, Farm Progress director of trade shows, “You could always tell when an LTA pole tent was put up by Dan and his crew. All of the tents would be strung tight, but then there was ‘Dan tight.’  The tent stood straight and perfect. It was an art, and it was a pleasure to watch him put one up.”

Jungmann adds that Meyer’s smile and giggle were infectious. “You just couldn’t help but have a nice laugh and lighten your day, even if just for a moment, whenever Dan was around. His outstretched firm handshake and smile will be missed terribly.”

Meyer worked as a supervisor at LTA for 35 years, and Jungmann adds that he knew so intuitively what to do, he’d bring in a whole semiload of tents and start dropping them. “He’d start placing them and putting them up without any guidance from us,” Jungmann shares. “He just knew where stuff went and got to work.”

Dena Morgan, show manager, says Meyer was the first to offer help once the tents were up. “If the FPS staff needed help and there was still work to be done and Dan was done with tents, you knew he would be there to help us out.”

He liked making people smile, too, Morgan recalls. “I always gave Dan a hard time about the flags that are on the LTA logo. I would always ask him why my tent didn’t have flags on it — I wanted the flags! This went on for years until one Hay Expo, he called me over. He’d put one of the marking flags up on top of the tent. Of course, I loved it!”

Pam Wint, longtime grounds electrician for FPS with her husband, Mark, remembers Meyer’s love for fried chicken — specifically, hers.

“Somewhere in the past, I offered to make a home-cooked chicken dinner for a select group of those at the show grounds during setup — including Dan. After the meal, Dan came up to me and told me that the chicken was the only one that ever rivaled his grandmother’s.

“From that time forward, Dan asked if we were going to have chicken — and we did! One year, I even made sure he had some fried chicken at our county fair when he was setting tents there! Dan will be greatly missed!”

“He was a very important part of our family and will always be remembered as a very hard-working man who always got the job done. Our motto has always been ‘second to none.’ Dan was and always will be ‘second to none!’” says Craig Ebershoff, Lafayette Tent & Awning.

The Farm Progress family offers condolences to the family of Dan Meyer. You can find his full obituary here.