Inducted: November 28, 1990
Otis McGregor has brought the same deep spirit of dedication to all his life's work, whether it was as a Presbyterian lay minister or as Secretary-Manager of the Ontario Soya-Bean Growers' Marketing Board.
That career was divided into three distinct segments; first, in milling; then as a lay preacher for 13 years; then back to agriculture.
Mr. McGregor was born in Chatham, the son of Maggie Jane and Herb McGregor, and attended McKeough School before the family moved to Seaforth, and later, to Wallaceburg. He left high school to apprentice with Drader Hawkins in milling, where he had his first extensive experience working with farmers.
After seven years as a miller, Mr. McGregor returned to school and took preparatory courses at McGill University in Montreal before embarking on 13 years as a Presbyterian catechist in Alberta, Quebec and Ontario.
He returned to agriculture in 1955 as Manager of the Lambton Federation of Agriculture at Corunna. In this capacity, he worked with a number of farm organizations, and with farmers preparing for the vote that initiated the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board in 1958.
The first Chairman of that Marketing Board, R. J. Myers, was influential in persuading Mr. McGregor to join the staff of the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board and the Ontario Soya-Bean Growers' Marketing Board as Assistant Secretary-Manager. When the two boards separated in 1975, he was asked to set up new offices as Secretary-Manager of the Soya-Bean Growers' Marketing Board, an organization representing some 17,000 growers across Ontario.
Aware of the importance of market development, he participated in three producers' missions to the United Kingdom, and five trade missions to Southeast Asia, developing new markets for edible soybeans.
Since his retirement in 1983, he has continued his work as a Presbyterian lay minister.
Mr. McGregor married the former Margaret Baker in 1938, and they have two daughters and six grandchildren.