Known to many Iowans as the dean of farm broadcasters, Herb Plambeck ended a career spanning 70 years in agriculture and journalism when he died Monday night.Plambeck was remembered for his “total dedication to farmers and farming,” said Lee Kline, a co-worker and retired farm broadcaster from WHO radio.”Plambeck was committed to the old-time, small family farm,” he said. “He was unhappy about the corporate farming because it replaced small family farming. He felt that when you lose the farmers you lose the community.”John Eighmey, professor and chairman of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, said Plambeck was thorough and persistent in his work. “He understood farm markets, the evolving farm technology, and how all the changes effect the farmer,” he said.Born on Feb. 29, 1908, Plambeck was 92 years old when he passed away at the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines.”His mind was sharp to the end,” Kline said. “He died quietly in his sleep, and his heart just quit beating.”Plambeck never went to high school because he had to stay home and help on his family farm in Scott County, Kline said. In the late 1900s, the dean of agriculture, H. H. Kildee, waived the requirements of admission to Iowa State for Plambeck. He became a full-time student, taking as many different classes as he could from all different subjects. Not having graduated, Plambeck left Iowa State to take a job as farm editor for the Davenport newspaper.”Herb became the first full-time farm service director at a commercial station in the United States in 1936, back when radio was just a child,” Kline said.After working at WHO for 33 years, Plambeck was promoted in 1970 to assistant to the United States Secretary of Agriculture Clifford Hardin, and then Earl Butz. He came back to Iowa and did various activities, such as writing books and columns, Kline said.”The time Herb spent at Iowa State meant everything to him,” Eighmey said. “He looked to the agriculture faculty as important resources. One of his best moments was when the Greenlee School faculty acknowledged him with the James Schwartz Award [for Distinguished Service to Journalism] last year.”Always energetic, Keith Kirkpatrick, Plambeck’s successor as farm director at WHO and co-worker, said he felt Herb was an ambitious man who was hard to keep up with. “He was a real doer by nature and personality, beating the odds with his education and career,” he said.Eighmey said he also felt Plambeck was a hard worker to the last minute. “Many of Herb’s broadcasts began with the phrase ‘this is a great day for success,’ which defined his life and work ethic,” Eighmey said. “He didn’t waste any daylight, he was always working harder, faster and better then anyone.”Plambeck was a man with great mental and physical strength to the end, who always was achieving something new, Kline said.”Achievement was the uppermost in his mind,” Kline said. “Herb was a driven man when it came to work, and kept working even when he retired. He was a tireless worker with great perseverance.”