Mary Kahn of Rock Port is retiring from the Atchison County Soil & Water Conservation District. A retirement reception is being held in her honor on Tuesday, March 26, from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. at the office at 302 East Highway 136 in Rock Port.

After almost nine years of service, Mary Kahn of Rock Port is retiring from the Atchison County Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD). For Mary, this is her “final retirement” as she has worn many hats over the years.

Mary began at SWCD December 7, 2015, and has been a “jack-of-all-trades.” She was the one going to the fields to work on the global positioning systems, spot checking, and taking soil samples, and in the office she helped update the filing systems. Mary remarked that the Rock Port office’s filing system is the best she’s seen among the conservation districts, which makes everything run smoothly.

For Mary, her retirement from the office on April 1 will mark her last retirement from careers that have spanned many decades. Mary was in the United States Air Force for 23 years. She was stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, Anchorage, Alaska, Las Vegas, Nevada, Germany, Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, Grand Forks, North Dakota, Saudi Arabia, and San Antonio, Texas. In Saudi Arabia, she lived in a tent for a year in the desert in what the servicemen and women affectionately referred to as “tent city.” Most of her career was spent with the truck fleet, running the vehicle operations, driving and working on the heavy equipment and making sure everything was up to snuff and running smoothly. Although she met some resistance to a woman running the show with the vehicle fleet and heard at least one superior officer say women take naturally to filing and typing, she proved him and other naysayers wrong and showed them that a woman is fully capable of doing what was once known as a man’s job. At least one of her crews won a “golden wrench award” for keeping their vehicles in good working order. In Germany, Mary trained and toned her body and was involved in competitions. She remarked that in her retirement, she’s looking forward to getting back to working out in the gym.

Following her retirement from the military, Mary worked at Wal-Mart Vision Center in Maryville for seven years, and was employed at Casey’s and Food Country in Rock Port before she started with the Soil and Water Conservation District. In the office, Mary and her coworkers became a family and enjoyed many fun-filled days, as well as pranking each other. She had some fun with a dead snake and snake skin in the office of one coworker who was terrified of snakes who had made the mistake of pranking her by ransacking her vehicle six months previously. She will miss the laughs with her coworkers and camaraderie with the contractors as well. She’s enjoyed knowing that her service with the district has played a small part in helping farmers successfully operate their farms.

Mary joked that she calls herself a displaced Connecticut Yankee. She was looking for a place to settle down and for land to purchase after her travels. She found and purchased around 80 acres south of Rock Port and built a barn and home. She has two horses, two dogs, and two cats and her own hay field and she chops her own wood to heat her home. For Mary, it’s a paradise in contentment and peace and she’s found home. She’s looking forward to having more time working on the farm and riding her horses.

Although Mary’s “career” will be over come April, she will stay busy. Besides doing chores on her own farm, Mary will be helping a local farmer with harvest in the fall and she’s also involved in the community in organizations such as the American Legion and P.E.O.

A retirement reception with coffee and donuts will be held in Mary’s honor Tuesday, March 26, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the Atchison County Soil and Water Conservation District Office at 302 Hwy. 136 East, Rock Port. Come and wish Mary well on her retirement journey.