About Gerald McCathern

Gerald McCathern is a Native of the Texas Panhandle, born in 1926 he has lived most of his life in the area around Amarillo. After serving in the Aviation Engineers during WW II, he returned to Pampa, Texas and worked in the oil fields for a short time before enrolling in Texas Tech under the G.I. Bill. It was there that he met and married his wife, Bonnie Traweek. He graduated from Tech with a degree in Petroleum Geology and worked on wild cat oil wells in the Permian Basin for a short time before moving to Hereford, Texas to begin a farming and ranching career.

Gerald has had an exciting life. In 1977 he became involved in the farmers strike, known as the American Agriculture Movement. As the National Wagonmaster in the protest movement, he led over 5,000 tractors and 50,000 farmers across the nation to Washington, D.C. to carry their problems to Congress and the American people. During the three year period of the protest, he became very respected in the political realm, meeting with such national figures as Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Senators Bob Dole, Lloyd Bentsen, John Tower and Edward Kennedy. Mayor Marion Berry, Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland, Jesse Jackson, George Bush, Sr. before he became President and George Bush, Jr. before he became Governor.

As a spokesman of the movement, he appeared on Good Morning America and the Donahue Show, as well as on many radio talk shows, and met with the editorial board of the Washington Post. In 1981 President Reagan appointed him as Special Assistant to Secretary of Agriculture John Block in Washington, D.C. where he was instrumental in designing and implementing the cheese and surplus foods give-away program as well as many other constructive programs.

The tractor which Gerald drove from Texas to Washington, D.C. the winter of 1979 is now enshrined in the Smithsonian Museum.

In 1986, Gerald returned to Texas and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the 19th Congressional District. During those years he continued his love of writing, editing and publishing his own nationally circulated newsletter,The Agriculture Watchdog. He also wrote and published four books, From the White House to the Hoosegow, Gentle Rebels, To Kill the Goose, and Line of Succession.

In 1996 he retired from farming and is now pursuing a full time writing career.

Gerald and Bonnie have three children and eight grandchildren. They reside at their home in Hereford, Texas.