Maier’s belief in service led to late start in Army

FORREST, Ill. — After college, Marcus Maier got a full-time job, but he still had the notion of joining the Army in the back of his mind.

“I kind of did the roundabout approach. I graduated from Eastern Illinois University and worked at State Farm Insurance for five years. I quit and joined the Army. I went through basic training as a 28-year-old private first class,” he said.

“My dad was in the Army and a lot of his friends were and it was always something in the back of mind that I thought I should do. And I finally got to a point in my life where, yeah, it’s either now or never.”

Maier served from the end of 1988 through the summer of 1993.

“I was an infantry officer with the 3rd Armored Division and then later with the 3rd Infantry Division, stationed in Europe and then stationed back in the states in the D.C. area,” he said.

“My service was primarily in Germany. I was part of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. So, we left from Germany to go to the Middle East. I had a platoon of Bradleys. We were called a mechanized infantry and that’s what we did.”

Maier’s decision to join the Army was based on his belief that everyone should “do some kind of service for their country, whether it’s the Peace Corps, military, or whatever it might be.”

“It gives you a great perspective on what we have here in the United States,” he said. “We sometimes lose focus on what we don’t have in the United States and forget what we do have.

“And there’s so many people that I think still, no matter what the world situation is, that want to come to the states, just because you do have freedom to do what you basically want — within reason, of course.

“It was just always something I thought I should do. I met a lot of great people, a lot of great soldiers that we talked to and worked with.

“In the end, I got married and my wife came with me, too. She was in Europe for six months or so. She met a lot of great people and it’s just a great family to be a part of.”

Farming Career

His fifth-generation Centennial Farm was established in 1885. His family’s home is adjacent to the original 80 acres.

“I farm a little over 500 acres, corn, soybeans and a little hay for a couple horses that I have,” Maier said.

“My wife, Patty, substitute teaches in the Prairie Central school district; our daughter, Heidi, is a tax lawyer for the IRS in Milwaukee; our daughter, Gretchen, is a second-grade teacher in a charter school in Milwaukee; and our son, Ben, helps farm and grows sunflowers, watermelons, basil and other things here on the farm.”

Conservation Efforts

Maier’s dedication to service goes beyond protecting the nation in the Army. He’s also a firm believer in protecting the natural resources.

He’s been no-tilling soybeans since the mid- to late-1990s and just started strip-tilling corn.

“In 2026, I’m going to put most of the corn in strips. So, we do very minimal till for everything,” he said.

“We try to use all the best practices that they’re trying to instill in farmers to keep our nutrients in the ground and not flowing down the Mississippi and into the Gulf.”

He has served on the Livingston County Soil and Water Conservation District board since 2007.

“I’m a big believer that we’re just kind of caretakers of the land as we pass through life. So, what we can do to help preserve that for the next generation and generations beyond, that’s a responsibility we have to take very seriously. I think it’s good for everybody if we do that,” he said.

“That’s kind of my goal in being part of the Soil and Water Conservation District is to instill that in other people in the county and the state where we can talk about it.”

The moldboard plow was once a common tillage tool years ago, exposing the topsoil to the elements. More farmers have turned toward minimal tillage to protect the soil.

“You can drive around and see guys who are doing no-till and guys who aren’t and what the wind does,” Maier said.

“They used to rotate crops. They used to have pastures and oats and all that. They used to do more of a rotation than we do now, but once we got into the corn and soybeans and row crops, that kind of fell away because we were talking about production.

“So, now I think we’re leaning a little bit more back to conservation because we have to protect our natural resource of soil because when it’s gone, it’s gone. We have to do what we can to protect it.”