Doug Becker named Granton Honored Citizen

By Cheyenne Thomas In the nomination letter provided to the Granton FFAAlumni for this year’s honored citizen award, Doug Becker was noted as someone who does things “quietly, efficiently and humbly to make Granton and the surrounding area a better place to live.” Throughout the years, Becker’s quiet, efficient and humble way of contributing to life in the Granton area has continued to make a positive impact, from adding a new business to allowing fun times to be had by all when the village’s annual festivities commence.

Becker will be honored as the Granton Citizen of the Year at the Granton Fall Festival to be held Sept. 6-8. A1986 graduate of Granton High School, Becker first moved to the area with his parents when he was around 8 years old in 1976. While his father, Edwin, farmed and worked as a truck mechanic at Lynn Dairy, Becker said he grew to appreciate cars and purchased his first one at age 14.

“Cars just interested me,” he said. “My first car, which I still have, I bought that at age 14. That car led me down the road where I was going.”

Where he was going was into work as a mechanic himself. After he graduated high school, Becker worked briefly at local dairy farms before getting his first job in the automobile world at Fleet Farm’s auto center. From there, he went on to work at an independent mechanic shop in Marshfield before coming back to Granton to start his own business, Becker’s Repair and Welding, which he operated out of the former Hubing’s Standard Service building along the curve on County Highway K.

He ran that business for 10 years before Becker made a choice that greatly impacted Granton’s businesses: founding the Granton Convenience Store (C-Store). Located on the site of the former livestock auction barn, Becker said it took three years of work to demolish that building and build the C-Store, which was constructed in 2003. With its completion, the C-Store became the place in Granton to stop to purchase not only gas, but food and other items.

“I guess you could say my ideas expanded,” he said on the founding of the store. “Down at the old shop (Becker’s Repair and Welding), we only had one flavor of gas with two pumps. We just sold unleaded fuel and when we took the shop over, we added a cooler with some sodas and milk, pizzas and such, but that was the only gas option in town at the time. Granton needed a better gas station, but there were limits to what you could do down there. You couldn’t have added the C-Store downtown.Sowethoughtaboutelsewhere.”

Running the Granton C-Store was quite the learning process, Becker said. A very different profession than just operating a mechanic shop, he said the work was something he became dedicated to doing seven days a week to make sure everything ran smoothly. Because of the amount of work required, Becker soon closed his mechanic shop downtown to focus more on running the C-Store, which he owned and operated until 2021 when he sold it to Provision Partners Cooperative.

“Every time I go by the C-Store, I still think about it,” he said, reflecting on the impact the business has had on the village. “It still means a lot to me and just knowing about what it has done for the people in the village, it makes it more special.”

In addition to founding the Granton C-Store, Becker has taken part in helping in other areas of village life, again, doing so quietly, efficiently and humbly. For about five years, he served as a member of the Granton First Responders and he also served for several years as one of the founding

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members of the Granton Fall Festival Committee.

“When Francis Steiner decided to step down from being in charge of taking care of everything for the Granton Fall Festival, he hand-picked several community members to serve on a committee to run the event,” he said. “Cheryl Steinbach, Roger Nitschke, me, Carol Hubing and a few others were invited to be on that first Fall Festival Committee. I still attend meetings, but I’m not on the committee now.”

While he may not be on the current committee, Becker still takes part in helping put together and run events at the festival every year. He helps to put on the Tri-City Car Cruise, as well as the Hot Wheels drag race for the kids to provide some fun at the festival for people of all ages.

Becker said being selected as the Granton Honored Citizen is deeply humbling and he credits his family — which includes two daughters, Sanya and Amber, and their families — for doing so much with him over the years to help bring so many of these things to life in Granton.

“I’m honored by it,” he said. “It was my family that got me here. I credit my mom, my dad and my family for even being nominated.”