Fast talkin' for 50 years

COEUR d’ALENE — For 50 years, Carroll “Mac” McLean, 84, has been the fast-talking, kind-hearted stock auctioneer at the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo.

He’ll greet young exhibitors when they step into the show ring with their livestock. He knows them by name, and most likely knows their parents and grandparents.

He’ll say, “Alexander, that’s a good calf,” or “Kimberly, how are you, honey?” Then he’ll get to business, plunging into the auction at lightning-fast speed, persuading buyers to spend just a little more money to support the work of the 4-H youngsters.

“You have no idea how great its been to have the opportunity to work with your 4-H kids in Kootenai County for the last 50 years,” McLean said to the crowd in the Jacklin Building at the Fairgrounds on Saturday morning. “I look out here, and mothers and dads, whose kids are showing, most of them weren’t born when I signed the first sale. I guarantee, It’s been a privilege and an honor.”

Area 4-H youth extension coordinator Jim Wilson recognizes McLean’s selflessness and devotion in his work with area 4-H programs, so that’s why he was pleased to present McLean with a few items from his “bucket list” after the beef auction.

“(We want) to make sure that we kind of help you out with your bucket list for everything that you have done for Kootenai County 4-H for over 50 years,” Wilson told McLean as he handed him a shiny, silvery bucket.

In the bucket were two airline tickets and admission passes to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December, an event Wilson said he knew was still on McLean’s “bucket list.”

“It’s just an opportunity for us to honor the dedication that he’s shown the 4-H program over 50 years and helping thousands of youths, not only in northern Idaho but eastern Washington,” Wilson said.

Wilson also announced that McLean would be inducted into the Idaho 4-H Hall of Fame in a ceremony this fall.

“He deserves it,” said McLean’s girlfriend, Vonnie Satchwell. “He’s given 50 years to the 4-H, and I think he’s the best auctioneer I’ve ever heard.”

McLean, of Rosalia, Wash., and about 25 family members gathered in the show ring to snap a few pictures in celebration of his milestone with 4-H and the North Idaho Fair. McLean said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the bucket and its contents and is really looking forward to that rodeo, but what has kept him going all along is the lives he touches and is touched by.

“It’s the people, it’s a people thing,” McLean said. “That’s what it’s all about, the kids.”

His nephew Wade McLean of Post Falls was one of the many McLean clan members present for Mac’s honors.

“I think it was great, it was really great. I mean, 50 years is amazing, 50 years to do anything is amazing,” Wade said. “He sold my steers, he sold my son’s steers, he sold my grandson’s steers. That’s three generations.”

Wilson said he was unsure whether Mac ever went to auctioneering school, but it is an acquired skill that Mac has mastered.

“I think it’s a natural skill and ability that Mac has, and certainly he interacts well with people and there’s a connection,” he said.

Wilson said this may have been Mac’s last year working the fair, as Mac had always said he just wanted to hit the 50-year mark and is confident in passing along the torch to “the younger folks.”

“He was one of the first individuals I met when I came on the job. He’s just a very dynamic man,” Wilson said. “He’s the most giving kind of man you’d ever meet.”