Our company Christmas card has been drawn by the same artist year after year. Every year we have a card with a pheasant theme to tickle your funny bone and share our wishes for a Merry Christmas. Ron Lawrence, currently living on a family farm in Crawford County, is the artist who has drawn the MacFarlane Pheasant Farm Christmas card for more years than anyone can remember! He has a long history with the MacFarlane family.
Ron worked full time at General Motors in Janesville until his retirement, but for 28 years he worked part-time at MacFarlane Pheasants. Ron decided he needed to supplement his income because he wanted to buy the family farm. Obviously, it worked for him because he lives on the farm he began paying for when he was 20 years old! He took the job at MacFarlane’s when Bill MacFarlane was a teenager and his dad, Don MacFarlane owned the business. Ron continued to work at the farm when Bill took over the business. In fact, his work with pheasants was such a big part of Ron’s life that his nickname at General Motors was “Pheasant.”
Ron (Pheasant) Lawrence was the youngest of three boys. When he was 5 or 6 years old, his older brother sent a picture to “Can You Draw This” from the back of a magazine. Ron decided he liked keeping up with his older brother and began to copy pictures from the comic strips in the paper. He continues to love doodling and making pictures out of the stories his friends tell. He has spent his entire life drawing cartoons for relaxation.
Ron remembers drawing a caricature of the entire crew at MacFarlane Pheasants for Fred, a foreign exchange worker at the farm, who was leaving to return to France. Everyone enjoyed the picture so much that Bill asked Ron if he would be interested in drawing the Christmas card for MacFarlane’s. He has been drawing the Christmas card for the farm, ever since. Bill has two framed pictures in his office with all of the cards Ron has drawn.
As you can imagine, Ron is very important to MacFarlane Pheasants. We hope you have enjoyed his cards over the years and though we miss him, we are sure glad that his many years of hard work led him to the farm in Crawford County that he loves so much!
