24 John Deere tractors from the Dr. Robert Ronk Collection

By Kellen Olshefski

t’s no doubt that what we are exposed to during our formative years greatly affects our future paths and defines the people we become. When it comes to collectors, it’s these years and the memories attached to them that often steer their interests and help to define their collections later in life. For Dr. Robert Ronk of Mount Vernon, Ohio,

it is those years in his life that greatly influenced his interest in tractors and helped to shape his collection of 25 beautiful John Deere tractors amassed over the past two decades. And now, ready to embark on a new chapter in his life, Ronk is prepared to bring the vast majority of his wonderful collection to Gone Farmin’s Fall Premier this November 7-9 in Davenport.

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Ronk, a retired orthodontist who practiced in Mount Vernon for 38 years, was born and raised in the farming community. Growing up on his parents’ farm just east of Fredericktown, Ohio, he first started driving the farm’s John Deere B at around 7 or 8 years old, using the tractor to pull loose hay up into the haymow. Over the years, Ronk attended school in nearby Fredericktown, just seven miles from where he lives today. His wife of 54 years, Pat, was one year behind him in school, and those early years of their budding romance served to further foster Ronk’s love for John Deere tractors. “I’d go out after school when I was dating her, and I’d plow and disc with her father’s John Deere A to help him out, because he worked at General Motors too,” he explained. “That’s where I got used to really working with a John Deere tractor.”

Following high school, Ronk attended pre-dental and dental school at Ohio State University, and then fulfilled his obligation during the Vietnam War with the U.S. Navy immediately after. Following his service, his interest in working with younger people pushed him to head back to school to become an orthodontist. As his wife’s parents aged over the years, the task of selling off some of their farming equipment was what ultimately led to Ronk first entering the collector’s market. “I thought, well, that A means more to me than anybody else, and I ended up buying that tractor,” he said. “I still use that tractor today to bush hog on the farm, even though it doesn’t have power steering. I still use it, and I just love that putt-putt sound. That’s how I got started in collecting.”

In the 15 or 20 years since, Ronk has been seeking out those special John Deere tractors that have piqued his interest, attending auctions and picking up the finest examples. Fully dedicated to the Deere, Ronk has collected 25 John Deere tractors—almost exclusively 2-cylinder examples—since he first started with that John Deere A, and he has held onto each and every one of them over the years. Perusing auction listings and bills of sale, Ronk said if he saw a tractor he had to have, he would load up and make his way to wherever he needed to go to get it, even traveling as far as Ontario, Canada, where he picked up his “Spoker” 1925 John Deere D.

In developing his collection, Ronk began to seek out not only the tractors that he had worked with in his formative years, but also tractors that were unique. “I like different things, like the Spoker D, that’s a pretty unusual tractor and, of course, very old,” he said. “I like the Orchard tractor—that’s the last one I bought, by the way—and I thought that it was very unique, very different, something that you don’t see in our area.”

Ronk also very much wanted to acquire complete sets of some of the various series of tractors he was interested in, including the 20 series and the letter series specifically. “I didn’t want to buy anything just to buy one. I wanted to buy something that was either unique or filled in my series, like with the lettered series and the 20 series. In fact, I’ve got all of the 20 series, and then I had wanted all of the letter series. Those are the tractors that I worked with when I was young, the letter series—the A and the B.”

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Ronk’s collection includes a variety of tractors, though all are John Deere brand and most are 2-cylinder models. Among his collection are the aforementioned letter- and 20-series tractors, as well as a slew of different tractors that Ronk felt were unique to his specific region, such as his Orchard tractor, a couple of propane tractors—which he said he doesn’t remember ever seeing as a boy in Ohio—and the wheatland John Deere tractors, such as the R, 80, 820 and 830. “I do like the wheatlands,” he said. “The R was one that I remember I had seen on a farm not too far away from here. That farmer was the only one that had one when I was growing up, and I thought that it was an unbelievably good-looking farm tractor. That R is also one of my favorites in my collection.”

While that familiar putt-putt sound emanating from a 2-cylinder John Deere is a large part of what sparked his love for tractors, Ronk said he does have one John Deere in his collection that doesn’t fit into his typical mold: a 1963 John Deere 5010. “The reason I bought it was that I always thought it was a really good-looking tractor,” he said. “It’s a standard with the fenders that roll back over the rear wheels. I just thought that was one of the best-looking new-generation tractors out of all of them. So, I searched and searched, and it’s hard to find a really good one, because I just wasn’t interested in buying tractors that were in really rough shape. I eventually found one in Indiana, and that’s one of my favorites, even though it’s not a 2-cylinder.” Ronk also noted his John Deere 420 Crawler, featuring a blade and rolling on tracks, as being one of his other favorites from his collection.

Ronk said that he’s had about half of his collection restored, while the other half were already restored tractors when

he purchased them, the latter being his preferred method. “I’ve found that you’re really financially ahead if you buy them already restored,” he said. “A lot of labor goes into restoring a tractor and doing it right. Sandblasting, priming, painting and putting it all back together: that’s pretty labor intensive.”

Over the years, Ronk has enjoyed owning the tractors, sharing them with members of the local tractor club that he is a part of and displaying them at the County Fair and Old Time Farm Festival in Centerburg, Ohio. “I’ve taken them around to different places, but when you have so many, you can only take one or two at a time,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed doing that. You meet really nice people. In fact, I think that’s one of the pluses of collecting tractors: you really meet some good down-to-earth people, solid people.”

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And it’s this sentiment that Ronk said has been among the most rewarding aspects of amassing his collection: the friendships and relationships he’s built within the hobby over the past two decades. “I’ve developed some good friends over the years. One of my really good friends is a fellow that does all of the mechanical work for my tractors; he is an excellent mechanic and bails me out and fixes me up when things aren’t going the way I want them to. I’m not really mechanically inclined, and I didn’t have the time to do much of that with my profession.

“Overall, it ’s been a good ride, and I’ve gotten to go to some different parts of the country and meet people. I’ve really enjoyed it. But, this chapter of my life, it ’s going to close one of these days.”

Currently living in retirement, Ronk is ready to part with the majority of his collection, a large part of the reasoning being his three children and six grandchildren in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. While Ronk says he

and his wife do visit family often, he’s now preparing to move closer, as being a part of his grandchildren’s lives is something that’s truly important to him and his wife. At 78 years young, he said it’s time to think about his future and part with the tractors—all but that very first John Deere A. “I’ve enjoyed these tractors over the years, but I didn’t want to leave my wife stuck with all these tractors,” he said. “I’m just a country boy that kind of got into tractors and enjoyed it. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve decided it’s time to phase out of that part of my life, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Now prepared to shift into the next chapter of his life, Ronk will bring 24 of his tractors to Gone Farmin’s Fall Premier in Davenport in hopes that other collectors can share in the joy he has garnered from owning and caring for these tractors throughout his years of collecting. As Ronk prepares to let go of his dearest Deeres, it presents an opportunity for other collectors to take home a wonderful tractor that is sure to become just as dear to them.

OFFERED NOVEMBER 8 AT DAVENPORT 2019

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