NEWS CLIP FROM WASHINGTON POST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R002000780002-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 4, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 24, 1986
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002000780002-3
With Helping Hands;. Va. widow Keeps Her Farm
By Ed Bruske
Washington Pact Staff Writer
WOODSTOCK, Va.-Local
farmers had seen the arrival of
starry-eyed urbanites before-
bringing their Volvos, their fancy.
Jeeps and their brash plans to
work the land for fun and profit.
As sure as the Shenandoah Riv-
er twists through the rock-
studded valley, the dreams of city
farmers seemed always to wither,
leaving great expectations and
another failed farm behind.
Bob and Pat Wichser hoped to
be an exception to that rule.
Both high-level congressional
aides, the Wichsers quit their jobs
on Capitol, Hill in the spring of
1985 to raise sheep in the Shen-
andoah foothills 85 miles south-
west of Washington.
At first, their plan struck locals
as sheer nonsense. And when Bob
Wichser, 42, was swept to his
death by a? flood-swollen river just
six months after he and his wife
moved here, it seemed to confirm
the community's worst fears
about well-intentioned transplants
who try to carve a living from this
unforgiving landscape.
Tragedy has not turned Pat
Wichser away. She is still on the
land, stubbornly trying to reas-
semble the pieces of the couple's
shattered dream. And she is not
alone. Originally skeptical, local
farmers have adopted the Wich-
sers' vision as their own.
n
o
J ena a a ey s eep r m.
a
See WICHSER, AS, Col. 1 Right, on bridge to the farm a plaque memorializes her husband Bob who died trying to save A- in 1095, flood
Pat Wichser has won neighbors' support with her determination to carr on with Sh
d
h Vllh f
Approved For Release 2000/08/08: CIA-RDP96-00789R002000780002-3
 Approved, For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002000780002-3
A8 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1986
.Couple -Brought Naivete,
Perseverance to Va. Farm
WICHSER, From Al The Wichsers were unfazed by
such minor setbacks, though. And
Fired by the sheer will the Wich- when- they learned that a larger
sers brought to their improbable farm was for sale at one of the
enterprise, and by 40-year-old Pat bends in the river, they jumped into
Wtchser's determination to remain, their pickup to take a tour.
old hands have formed a bond with The Wichsers needed only one
the newcomer and have helped her look at the 297-acre farm, then
breathe life into her crippled sheep overgrown and falling apart, to
farm. know they wanted it. They cashed-
"People enjoyed watching them, Pat Wichser's retirement fund to
the enthusiasm they had for the make the first payment, and, over a
-work," said Doug French, a dairy glass of `wine one night in May
farmer and a U.S. Farmers Home 1980, toasted a secret pact to quit
Administration area official. "They their jobs and move permanently to
were showing everybody how to qo the farm in five years.
it." Nearly every weekend, the Wich-
The Shenandoah Valley's panora- sers wpr.ked feverishly to clear
mas of thick mountain forests and weeds and trash., They strung
`rolling farm lands captivated the fences, began building a
Wichsers years ago when they: 6,000 square-foot barn and re-
gazed out their car window from stored an old wash house into a tidy
Skyline Drive. Their weekend es- home, sometimes trudging a quar-
capes to the hills took firmer root ter mile through waist-deep snow
avhen, in 1975, they bought their when drifts blocked their truck.
first 40-acre plot along the river Bob Wichset insisted on doing
just outside Woodstock-the first the most difficult work'himself.
installment on their dream of leav- "Remember when President Rea-
ing'the city for good. gan's inauguration was called off
Whenever they could break away because it was too cold?" said Rob-
from the business of Congress, the ert Pangle, a real estate broker
Wichsers.took up hammer and saw whose 'house overlooks the Wich-
to build a small cabin on their iso- sers' from across the river. "Bob
lated property. It, was not long be- was out there stringing fence."
fore they dell into the company of Bob' Wichser believed in surviv-
landowners such as French, who ing off his land. Never having
lent an occasional hand. ' hunted before, he shot woodclfudks,
On the Hill, where each was a top muskrats and other rodents for the
,aide to a Republican House mem- dinner table.
bet, the Wichsers were almost in- "Whatever he got, we ate," Pat
:separable. And despite conserva- Wichser said.
-tive, midwestern upbringings-he Farm friends found some of these
'the son of a cereal company exec- exploits quaint, but they shuddered
utive and she the product of a Pres- with apprehension at the couple's
.byt