E.T. & Sibyl Hovatter
Hovatter Farms was founded in 1954, when then Major Elbert Troy Hovatter, USAF stationed at the Pentagon, bought the 151 acre property from Violet Marie Byrne. Sibyl often quoted ET's friends as asking:
"What are you going to do with that land you bought, clear out in the middle of nowhere"!
He would answer quickly and assertively,
"I'm going to farm it"!
ET & Sibyl lived out their lives on Hovatter Farms while ignoring all offers to sell the farm from local home developers.
"You build houses here and I'll come back to haunt you", she would say to us before she passed.
Three new county schools are a posthumous dream come true for her!
For 56 years during his lifetime and seven years after his passing (2010) the family farmed the fields now the home of Lightridge High, Willard Middle School and Hovatter Elementary School.
E.T., 1921-2010
Sibyl, 1920 - 2009
are buried together at Arlington National Cemetary.
Colonel E. T. Hovatter
Colonel E.T. Hovatter had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force. Graduating from Fairmont State College in June 1942 with a degree in Biology, he answered our nation's call to duty during WWII and enlisted in the Army Air Force.
His wartime duty was as a logistics supply officer with HQ. VIII Army Bomber Command which became the new 8th Air Force in England under the command of Lt Gen James Doolittle.
After returning to duty at the Pentagon, he completed his MBA at American University and taught at AU for a year after graduation.
Colonel Hovatter took on his last assignment as the Director of Information, Air Force Logistics Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Perhaps his greatest work during his last three years was his leadership in securing the funding and supervising the contracts to build the current Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
E.T. & Sibyl 2001
Sibyl raised her 4 sons, prepared countless meals 3 times a day and often helped on the farm when needed. It was just the 6 members of the family tending the land.
The 151 acre main farm produced wheat, white corn and soybeans in the 1950s and 60s milled for grits and corn meal by the Washington Flour Company in Georgetown, Wash. D.C.
Today over 4500 Elementary, Middle and High School students attend class on this property.
The Hovatter Family are very proud to have made this K-12 education campus the final use of their family farm.
