Inducted: 2001
Otis and Mary Lee Molz have dedicated themselves to organizing and strengthening cooperatives for more than 45 years. They have given generously of their time and finances to support cooperative development, always demonstrating strong leadership and incredible devotion to the cooperative way of meeting the needs of people. Their record of support and advocacy for cooperatives is nothing short of remarkable.
Otis and Mary Lee's leadership within the U.S. agricultural community and Farm Credit System is legendary. Otis played a key role in the creation of CoBank, and has served for many years on numerous boards of directors, including Garden City Co-op, Farmland, NCBA, and CoBank. Through these positions and others, both have served as untiring ambassadors for the cooperative movement.
Their co-op advocacy was not limited to rural America. Together, Otis and Mary Lee helped establish cooperatives in Latin America, utilizing their personal funds to travel there and train co-op members in best business practices. They also used their considerable influence to help build lasting relationships between these new co-ops and cooperatives in the United States.