Dorene Yearian was on the National Board of EDGETA as an advisor in 2002 and now is NC Director and Vice President, and serving on the insurance committee since 2003. As an advisor she was on the committee to revise and type the Directors Duties, the by-laws and worked with Howard Hodson to create the Youth Drivers Program. She served as Secretary-Treasurer and Membership for branch 16 from 2003-2005 and from 2005 to date as Treasurer / Membership. She also handles the registration for the Ozarks Steam Engine Assn show which is the Branch 16 home show. When not busy with that she is helping the ladies auxiliary sell coffee, cookies etc for fund raiser.
Dorene is very enthusiastic towards this hobby. She is always willing to help others in this hobby. She works hard in the National and local level of EDGETA. She has her own collection (JD) of tractors, engines, implements, wrenches and corn shelling equipment. She also has a collection of hog oilers mounted on a trailer which she takes to the local fairs and exhibit and exhibited and operates an antique cement mixer with a Waterloo Boy engine at the MO state fair, several years in a row. She is a showman and a good exhibitor of the old equipment. She is interested in showing and telling the younger generation about the old equipment what is was for and how it works. She even talked Tom into helping a couple of fellow members haul several of there collection of AC equipment to the branch 16 show and back a few years ago with their two trucks and trailers.
She has driven her own 41 foot enclosed toy hauler trailer from coast to coast (CA to NY) showing antique tractors and engines to further the hobby. Dorene & Tom have attend all of the National and NC regional shows since 2003, always with at least one trailer load and most of the time 2 trailer loads of equipment. And yes, it is all John Deere equipment except for Tom’s Empire tractor.
Dorene and Tom have traveled to the Tulare, CA farm show every year since moving to Missouri in the mid 1990’s dragging 2 trailer loads of equipment in support of there show. They also travel to several shows during the year taking equipment. She is right there helping load, tie down and driving her own rig as sometimes they take two trucks and trailers to a show. She talks to everyone about the EDGETA organization and the benefits. Tom and Dorene preserve and redo our own equipment and she works right along with Tom. She even has a brass base mount Edison-Splitorf magneto on their dining room table. To her it is beautiful and the center piece.
Dorene was born and raised in the city environment. After her and Tom were married he introduced her to the hobby. She has taken to the hobby with a one-track mind, always looking out for more equipment and can quote John Deere equipment with out taking a second breath. She always wants to put a piece of equipment behind a tractor to show the spectators what it is supposed to do. She is always willing to explain what the equipment does. She always wants to restore the old equipment back to its original condition. The 2-cylinder John Deere is music to her ear. If Tom starts a John Deere “D” she will come out of the house in a run.
Tom is chairman of the EDGETA Hall of Fame committee for the last 3-years. Tom teaches a small engine class to the 4-H kids in there area. Tom is the safety chairman for branch 16. He is always parking gas engine exhibits and riding through the show grounds helping with roping off engines putting chock blocks under tractor tires and what ever is need to make the run smoothly.
Tom is a member of the University Of Missouri Council Board Of Webster Co, MO and presently holds the position of Vice Chairman. Dorene is a member of F.C.E. (Family & Community Education) a part of the University of Missouri Extension center of Webster Co, MO. She now holds the position of State Chairman. Dorene volunteers at the Niangua School as librarian and classroom helper. Dorene also holds a teaching degree.They own and live on a farm near Niangua, MO. They lease the farm land out to a neighbor. They are a team.
The following material was collected from Dorene’s mother and Tom’s son:
Tom Yearian was born in Salmon, Idaho. He lived and worked on his parent’s ranch in Lemhi, Idaho. They grew hay, cattle and sheep. He went to Leadore High School. It was a very small school. Only 5 in his graduating class of 1953. Tom was the only boy. The rest were girls. I remember him telling me that his major was “rock throwing”. His grandmother was known as the Sheep Queen. She had the largest sheep farm in the state, in size and number of sheep. Well over 10,000 sheep at a time.Tom made his college money by raising the orphans’ lambs, and he was able to buy his dream –a brand new M G.
Tom moved to California and attended California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and received his degree in mechanical engineering. Right out of college he went to work for Western Gear Corporation in southern California. They manufactured precision gear boxes, motors and actuators used for many applications, including aerospace and secret military projects. He worked there until retirement.
Before being bit by the tractor collecting bug, Tom enjoyed building electronic projects. He built their first color TV from a kit back in the ’60s. And it worked! He also liked to ride motorcycles with his son.After retiring from Western Gear he and Dorene started collecting tractors. They ran out of room on their 1/2 acre lot in Chino, CA and moved to a 180 acre farm in Missouri.He has not filled that up with tractors yet. Tom has one son, Stirling, who has two antique John Deere tractors.
Dorene was born in Long Beach, California. She attended High school, Junior college plus 2 years of business school.
Employment:
The company that manufactured the first apace shuttle, Downey, CA.
Thermodor-the Company that makes stoves etc.
The company you are referring to about “fish” was, I think, Van De Kamps.
That’s why she can’t stand the smell of fish.
She was secretary for parks and recreation, in Bellflower, CA.
Bobby Lynn Clothing store, buyer and sales (especially the buyer part)
Dorene has one daughter who is an Attorney in N.Y. City.
Her Mother in trying to remember her childhood –these are the things that come to mind.
She always seemed to be in a hurry. Always trying to make things right or improve them. Consequently she had SOME accidents –One in particular, on a horse.So when Tom and Dorene were married they made a pact—
Tom was never to ask her to ride a horse and in turn she would never try getting him to learn to dance. Dorene comes across as bossy but I can assure you Tom is defiantly a partner in their marriage.
When Dorene’s mother and dad went to see where Tom & Dorene planned on retiring, she had misgivings about Dorene’s ability to adjust to farm life. Dorene with her manicured nails, high heel shoes, long dresses, fur coats, and all the things she had grown accustomed to in the big city life were gone. Dorene’s mother said never in my live thought I would see her changing a carburetor on a greasy old tractor. Was I ever wrong?
She loves all of it and all of you. She had traded all the glamour, the big house and all the big city life for a very small old farm house and a pair of boots. Dorene’s dad and mother and Tom built a big new barn for all their collections on the property before they moved.