Frank Lucas: “it is with a solemn heart that I rise today to share with my colleagues the passing of H.C. ``Ladd'' Hitch of Guymon…”

“it is with a solemn heart that I rise today to share with my colleagues the passing of H.C. ``Ladd'' Hitch of Guymon, OK. A pioneer cattleman and prominent Oklahoma Panhandle businessman, Ladd was truly a remarkable man who left an indelible mark on his community, his State, and his industry. He was the third-generation patriarch of a family that settled and prospered in what once was called our Nation's ``No Man's Land.'' The fact that a thriving agricultural economy has developed on this once barren land is a testament to his family's frontier spirit. The Hitch's settled in the Oklahoma Panhandle in 1884. Ladd was born in 1918 and by the time he reached adulthood, he and his family had revolutionized production agriculture in the region. As the Hitch legacy in the region grew, the family's visionary business practices never waned. They introduced one of the first irrigation systems in the Panhandle region. This innovation supplied the ability to produce an abundant feed supply and led to the establishment in 1953 of one of the Southwest's first large-scale cattle feedlot operations.”