94 Nebraskaland • June 2026
Mixed Bag
Hogs, hay and taxes. This is how
North Bend's Richard Freeman has
spent his work life. As a longtime tax
accountant who also sold hogs and
hay for more than half a century, his
office is a collage of memories.
Do a quick spin in the room and
the walls and tabletops tell his story,
from the black-and-white pictures of
family members set beside prints of
his children to the framed newspaper
articles about his businesses on the
wall beneath antique farm implements.
Spend a few minutes talking to
Richard, and he mentions the long
list of people who have helped him
through the years, from his childhood
friend John Colgan to his assistant Barb
Porkorny and all the helpers in between.
And right in the middle of these
memories is yet another unique one:
piles of Nebraskaland calendars dating
back to 1967, two years after the
calendar began.
H e s t a r t e d g i v i n g a w a y t h e
Nebraskaland "Calendar of Color" that
year, gifting more than 25,000 copies
over his career to clients across the
country. When asked why, his answer
was simple: "Because it's the best
calendar out there."
That is not to say he hasn't had his
favorites through the years, proudly
holding them up to reveal his love of
fog-covered mornings near the water
or keelboats floating the Platte River,
or how he's especially fond when the
calendar highlights multiple images
for a single month.
Like many of us, he has filled these
pages with appointments and errands
of the day, with a look at any particular
year providing an overview of what life
was like at the time.
Now, he's finishing up his last tax
season before retiring at the age of
84. He reminisces about having some
clients for more than 50 years, then
laughs when he recounts that he has
done taxes for five different Robert
Johnsons. But he has no plan to stop
giving away calendars.
And why would he? "You have the
best calendar. No doubt."
More than
25,000 Calendars
By Jeff Kurrus
