Owing to a career in the auction business that spans 45 plus years, Britton native Randy Owen, was recently inducted into the South Dakota Auctioneer’s Hall of Fame.
Owen grew up in the town of Britton and lived there for 35 years. He and his father John owned and operated Owen Livestock Company, a cattle order-buying business and farmed north of town until 1990. Owen is a 1974 graduate of Britton High School and attended SDSU in Brookings for two years. In 1991 he moved to Watertown, where he continued to operate Owen Auction Service, a company he started with his father in Britton.
Owen’s auction career started back in 1975 when he attended his first SDAA Convention in Madison, SD with his dad, the late John Owen. Randy wasn’t even an auctioneer at the time but was glad he went. As the saying goes: “Like father, like son”. Six years later Randy found himself graduating from The World Wide College of Auctioneering in Mason City, IA in 1981. John had graduated from the very same college in the mid-50’s.
Randy’s first auctions sales, of course, were with his dad, mostly household & personal property sales. He remembers his very first auction and laughs. “It was for an older couple (in their 90’s) - I booked the sale, had flyers made, scheduled all the advertising, took a hay rack over to their tiny house (smallest I’d ever been in) and set up the sale. Dad and I sold the auction and when it was all done the sale proceeds totaled just $460. We went back to dad’s office where I was told ‘Son, You’re going to write a check to that couple for the full 460 bucks and we’ll pay the advertising.’ He shook my hand and said... ‘Welcome to the auction business.’” November 18, 1983 marked Randy’s first farm machinery auction they had together. A folded sale bill on a yellow, legal-size piece of paper was discovered among old papers found in a file box. Before that, the records are scarce.
Shortly after graduating from Auction School in 1981 Randy also began working at South Dakota Livestock in Watertown where he was in charge of the “little ring” selling hogs, sheep & baby calves. Randy was an integral part of the daily operations at the North Sale Barn and he found himself very busy auctioneering: weekly on Wednesdays, sometimes on Friday for “special sales” and even on Saturdays and Sundays for Special Bred Cow Sales, Bull Sales or Horse Sales for 34 years.
As time passed, Randy began working more and more with many other auctioneers in the surrounding area. Literally hundreds of sale bills and auction flyers are proof of his ability as an excellent auctioneer who is easy to work with. After looking through auction files from the 1990’s through present day, the list of these “others” quickly surpassed 40.
In 1997 and 1998 Randy began working more and more with one particular auction firm: Loken-Bergh Auctions. Jerry and Mike had a huge, well-established following and Randy felt fortunate to become a part of that. Fast forward to today, Bergh and Owen Auctions are a well-known auction team in the Watertown Area. If Mike and Barb book the sale, Bergh Auction clerks it; if Randy & Chris book the sale, Owen Auction clerks it. This partnership, Bergh and Owen Auctions, finds itself very busy selling real estate, antiques, estates, household, personal property and more!
Their well-known professionalism in the auction industry and generosity is also marked with a remarkable level of “volunteerism” relating to fundraising auctions including: Prairie Lakes Hospital Foundation BASH, Ducks Unlimited,RockyMountainElk Foundation, Pheasants Forever, Wild Turkey Federation, Habitat for Humanity, Make-a-Wish,as well as many others.
With the backing of 120 plus years of “collective mentoring” from his father John W. Owen and the many others along the way, Randy’s done well for himself and deservingly has become the newest member of the South Dakota Auctioneer’s Hall of Fame.
