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Patrick K Goggins
Billings, Montana
Pat Goggins was born in Orland, California, in 1930. His family had roots in Montana, and they returned to Montana when Pat was still a toddler. Primarily a dairy farmer, Pat's father eked out a living during the Depression as a sharecropper. The family's income in 1936 totaled $97.
Too young to serve in World War II, Pat helped his family grow crops to feed the soldiers. Farming helped Pat develop habits of hard work and thriftiness. His first livestock achievements came in August 1947 when his 4-H Hereford steer walked away with Championship honors at the 1947 National Hereford Show.
Pat married Florence (Babe) Becker, the girl of his dreams, in 1951. In 1952, he graduated from Montana State University with a degree in animal husbandry and went to work as herdsman for two Hereford operations: Archie Parkes Hereford Ranch in Vaughn, Montana and the DeReimer-Atchison Hereford Ranch, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
In 1954, Pat went to work for the "Montana Farmer Stockman" and then for the "Western Livestock Journal".
But it was the job with the "Western Livestock Reporter", a newspaper in Billings, that provided the catalyst to the changes in his life that would take place in rapid-fire succession. In between driving a massive amount of miles in a "Volkswagen" Bug, Pat started sharing his opinions, comments and advice with the readers by way of a weekly column called "As I See It."
In 1961, Pat bought the "Western Livestock Reporter" from Norman Warsinske. Under his direction, the paper increased its readership from 10 northwestern states to virtually every state in the union. In 1968, Pat started another ag weekly called "Agri News".
Pat taught himself to be an auctioneer, practicing the chant by selling telephone poles as he drove down the highways. In 1968, Pat bought the 28 year old stockyards on Minnesota Avenue in Billings, Montana, and renamed it PAYS which stands for Public Auction Yards. In 1976, PAYS held the world's first livestock video cattle auction. He later founded Northern Livestock Video Auction.
In 1961, Pat bought his first ranch, the Vermilion Ranch located east of Billings where he and Babe have raised three generations of children and Angus cattle. Under his direction, Vermilion became a registered Angus operation of renown.
In the mid 1960's, Pat was instrumental in forming the Northern International Livestock Exposition (NILE) and was honored to be elected its first president in 1967. He was a board member for almost 15 years and still holds the number one membership card.
In 1983 Pat bought a second stockyards, the Billings Livestock Commission Co. With PAYS, those two markets made Billings, Montana the largest auction market town in the Northwest, and in the United States, second only to Amarillo, TX. Pat added a third auction market when he purchased Western Livestock Auction in Great Falls, MT.
Pat's newspapers have received separate national recognition for news coverage, and among his numerous personal recognitions are awards for Marketeer of the Year in 1977, Auctioneer of the Year from the National Auctioneers Association, U.S. Man of the Year in Livestock in 1992 and Montana Family Business of the Year in 1996. In 1998, he was made a member of the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame.
Many men and women have made a mark on their local ag industry, and quite a few on their state ag industry, but the field narrows when we're talking about people who have made significant contributions to the ag industry on a nationwide basis. Patrick K. Goggins is one such man.