By Adam Calaway
A NOBLE CALLING
Soak It Up: Steve Swigert assists in adding irrigation lines in a Ugandan field. Assisting with agricultural needs such as this is just one part of the mission. The program also offers medical care, education, and spiritual discipleship. Photos Submitted By: Steve Swigert
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few years back, if one needed to find Steve Swigert, most days he’d be working in the Noble Foundation’s Agricultural Division. If you weaved through the building towards the back hallway you'd find his old office. You would have known it was his, because some of the pictures and knickknacks seemingly didn't match the man or the industry. Sure there were photos of his two grown daughters and wife, Vicki, but there was also memorabilia from the University of Oklahoma (which he usually wore). If you paid close attention there was a small, Africa-shaped memory box on the corner of his desk, and pictures of a lush green land that is clearly not Oklahoma. Steve is an unassuming man, one of those guys that would do anything to help anybody. He has a bright smile, a hardy laugh that strikes a pleasant tenor, and 8
a grey mustache that could win a contest. For more than 22 years, Steve served as an agricultural economist for the Noble Foundation, assisting farmers and ranchers in the Southern Great Plains with financial advice and business planning. He now provides these same services for Great Plains Kubota! His background is completely Ag (He holds two masters degrees in Ag-related fields and managed a farming operation for almost a decade before he started at the Noble Foundation). His livelihood is Ag. His passion is Ag, and as it turns out, Africa. For almost 25 years, Steve has circled the globe, participating in and leading more than 30 mission trips for faith-based organizations. Two years ago, Steve’s local church, First United Methodist in Ardmore, Ok., came to Uganda to support the Watoto GPL Winter 2021
