Anthony Wenz Jr. was recently honored with the Mason County Conservation District’s Distinguished Service Award for 2020.

The award was presented in recognition of his long-term service as a District Board of Supervisors member and leader. Recently re-elected to the board, Wenz has now completed 26 years as a supervisor, 12 of those years as the board chairperson.

A life-long resident of the Minerva community, Wenz, along with his father Tony Wenz, brother Chuck Wenz, nephew C. J. Wenz, and niece Laura Wenz Hallman, owns and operates a 170-acre farm on Minerva-Tuckahoe Road.

The farm has now been in the family for six generations, principally as a tobacco and cattle operation. With tobacco no longer grown due to changing marketing challenges, cattle and forage comprise the backbone of operations.

Wenz attended Minerva Elementary and Mason County Middle Schools, where he was active in 4-H, and graduated from Mason County High School, where he was active in the Future Farmers of America, the high shool newspaper, and in Student Government, having served two years as president. He also attended Maysville Community College, studying agriculture.

Wenz has served in numerous local, state and regional capacities related to agriculture. He has been a board member, and is currently a council member, of the Mason County Cooperative Extension Service. He is a past president of the Mason County Agriculture Advancement Council, and Mason County Farm Bureau. He is a past president of the Burley Farmers Advisory Council, representing all burley tobacco growing states, and a past vice president of the Council for Burley Tobacco, representing all areas of burley production, marketing, and processing, and assisting in tobacco research. He is a past President of the Mason County Phase I Tobacco Fund Council, which would later become known as the Mason County Agricultural Development Council. He is a past member of the Mason County ASCS Committee, the precursor to today’s Farm Service Agency. He is also a past president of the Maysville Southern States Cooperative Board, and currently serves as the chair of the Nominating Committee for District H of Southern States.

The son of Tony and Charlotte Wenz of Minerva, Wenz is a life-long parishioner of Minerva’s St. James Catholic Church, where he is currently a lector and council member.