Although he often referred to himself as a "simple farmer," H. Winfield Tucker, who died Saturday at age 88, was anything but simple. He was a man of invention and business acumen, a mentor, and yet was never short of humility.

"He came from a farming background, but with his curiosity and intelligence he became a businessman instead of a farmer," said his daughter, Linda Tucker of Wakefield. "He was bigger than life."

A well-known South County potato and turf farmer, Tucker was revered in the farming community and among friends and family. For years his property in the Slocum section of North Kingstown supplied potatoes to Wise and Frito Lay companies and Tucker held his own seat on the New York Mercantile Exchange. When he changed his potato farms into turf farms during the 1970s, he invented equipment to help get the new business going. And his life stories have become legend within the family and the community.


Source:scindependent.com