Crop farmer and founding president of the Prince Edward-Hastings-Northumberland Landowners Association Wayne Gyde was killed June 6 while returning from a hunting camp with friends. The four-wheel ATV he was driving rolled over. Gyde was 55 years old.

The Picton-area farmer was driving in the rear of a line of ATVs when the accident occurred on Highway 28 east of Bancroft. He landed on pavement and died later in hospital.

Gyde became well-known in the farm community when he got involved in the tractor rallies and demonstrations that swept eastern Ontario in 2005. "If there was a farm issue he knew about it and he was first on the phone," recalled Picton farmer Lloyd Crowe, noting that Gyde worked as a bridge between the local landowners association and the local chapter of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. That was why Gyde became a regional director with the OFA, his wife Donna said.

Gyde farmed 600 acres until this year when he rented out the land and went to work planting crops for Lloyd Crowe.

"Wayne was from the old school where a handshake was worth more than a contract," his wife Donna said. "He was honest, loyal and dedicated."

They were foster parents for 12 years and had three children of their own: 26-year-old Michael, who plans to marry in September, 24-year-old Amanda and 20-year-old Dwayne.

The farmer’s creed was read at the funeral and the first line fitted Gyde to a T, his wife said. The creed begins: "I believe a man’s greatest possession is his dignity and that no calling bestows this more abundantly than farming."

He taught his children and foster children the importance of honesty and family farming, she said.

"His wisdom and commitment to betterment of community were an inspiration to us all," said Ontario Landowners’ president Jack MacLaren. "He was a positive minded person who made a difference. What more could any man do."