Elwyn Fowles, Sunnydell Farm, Southampton, MA.
Elwyn Fowles grew up in Southampton, MA. Attended local schools, graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1937 and later taught at the Stockbridge. School of Agriculture for two years. He married Louise Searle in 1938 and they operated Sunnydell Farm in Southampton, for fifty years, until 1988. Although Elwyn raised and exhibited Ayrshires as a 4-Her, he and Louse became well-known for their purebred, registered Guernsey herd of some 80 animals. In 1981, he was one of the first farmers in town to put his land and that inherited from his parents, into the newly-formed Agricultural Preservation Program. Forty years later, the property, with new ownership, if the only working dairy farm remaining Southampton. Among Elwyn's many community and agricultural activities over the years, he was the first master of Southampton Grange 401 and served as directory for: the Hampshire County Conservation District, the Production Credit program for Federal Land Bank of New England, the WTIC Heifer Program, Westfield Fair, the Massachusetts Farm Bureau and the Massachusetts Guernsey Breeders Association. He also served as President of the Massachusetts Fairs Association. With his children and grandchildren's 4-H involvement, Sunnydell Farm Guernseys were exhibited at several Mass. fairs as well as in Louisville, KY and Harrisburg, PA. The showherd earned countless blue ribbons, championships and trophies. In 1987, the final year of exhibiting before retirement, Elwyn also received the Premier Breeder of the Guernsey Show banner at The Big E.