Melvyn Glenn Price was born at St. Joseph Hospital in Alliance, Nebraska on March 31, 1942 to Glenn Price and Pauline Ada (Estes) Price. He was a lifetime resident of Hemingford, Nebraska and passed away Wednesday, September 14, 2022 following complications from heart surgery.
He attended and graduated from Hemingford High School in 1959. In school he was active in sports where he especially liked basketball, lettering in basketball and football. He also enjoyed one-act plays and friendships with other students.
After high school, Mel studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln. In his second year of college he met Joy Montgomery who was a student at Union College in Lincoln; they were married March 28, 1961. The following summer they moved to Hemingford and purchased 160 acres of irrigated farmland. In 1969, Mel and Joy purchased a second farm of 400 irrigated acres. Crops raised through the years included: potatoes, sugarbeets, dry edible beans, barley, malt barley, wheat, corn, triticale, sunflowers, oats, millet, alfalfa, in addition to a few cows. In 1974, they began developing a dairy hay market in the Loveland, Colorado area. Later, they started an additional hay business by purchasing a semi-truck to transport hay and grain. To supplement the farm income, Mel became a licensed and bonded grain dealer, buying, selling and hauling the commodities.
In 1976 the Alliance, Nebraska Jaycees chose Mel to represent Box Butte County as the Outstanding Young Farmer candidate at the Nebraska Jaycees State Convention in Millard, Nebraska. Mel was chosen the winner out of a field of 23 candidates. He later competed for the national title at the National Farmer-Rancher Convention in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Mel was a member of the Elks Lodge, Alliance, Nebraska, the Alliance Jaycees, and the Hemingford Seventh-day Adventist Church. His favorite bible text was John 21:3, "Simon Peter saith unto them, 'I go a fishing'..."
The most exciting fishing adventure Mel had was in 1992 when, with two of his friends, in Baja, Mexico, on the sea of Cortez near Los Barrilies, they pulled in a Blue Marlin weighing 1,200 pounds with a length of 17 feet and a girth of 78 inches. The marlin was processed and donated to the people of the little village of Los Barriles.
Mel is survived by his wife, Joy, daughter, Rae, a son and numerous relatives and friends.
In lieu of monetary donations, Mel requests that your kindness to others be your memorial.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, September 17, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at the Bates-Gould Chapel in Alliance. Burial will be in the Hemingford Cemetery. Visitation will be Friday, from 1-6 p.m. at the funeral home in Alliance.