Worm Czar put village on map

Amherst Junction synonymous with George Sroda

By Roger Pitt
Post-Crescent staff writer

AMHERST JUNCTION — The Worm Czar is dead, and unlike real life royalty, there is nobody to take his place.

George Sroda, 93, was a self-made, innovative man who used by-products of his turkey business to build a lucrative second business and gain national recognition with 22 appearances on national television shows with his TV celebrity, Herman the Worm. He also was interviewed on radio about 500 times, appeared in numerous print media and authored two books by his own account.

Sroda died Tuesday after a lingering illness.

“I was surprised,” said Millie Glodowski, his home caregiver for the past several years. “I talked to him Monday and he was doing very well.”

Glodowski recalls when her daughter told her professor at University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire she was from Amherst Junction he responded, “Oh, that’s where the Worm Czar is from.”

The town is located about 50 miles west of Appleton.

The turkey manure sold to farmers was eventually used in making “Turkey Peat” for gardening and later Magic Worm Bedding for raising worms and night crawlers. The latter led him to experimenting with night crawlers and his partnership with Herman the Worm.

He and Herman — who could paint, dance and perform — appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin and David Letterman.

He was at ease before a large crowd, probably a stage presence he gained as the organizer of a dance band, the Virginians, while a student at Amherst High School.

“Without a doubt he is the best known person from Amherst Junction,” said Connie Pitt, about 10 years Sroda’s junior.

Glodowski got to know Sroda while she was postmistress at Amherst Junction for 25 years. The post office was part of his business and social life. It is where he picked up orders for and mailed out his two self-published books.

“I probably knew him more than anybody else,” she said. “George was George. You couldn’t do him a favor. If I did something for him in the morning he would be back in the afternoon with a milkshake or something.”

“He was a good businessman. He capitalized on everything in the turkey business from the feathers that were dyed and made into decorations to the manure he sold to farmers,” said Ed Carr who came to Amherst Junction in 1948. “About the only thing he didn’t capitalize on was the gobble.”

Sroda used to laugh about that because he did capitalize on the gobble, playing recordings of “turkey talk” during programs he gave about turkeys. Sroda raised his turkeys in elevated pens and fed them special rations, then marketed them nationwide, commanding premium prices.

Sroda said his favorite celebrity was Burgess Meredith, who he met during one of the Carson appearances.

In addition, he became known for his photography, a hobby he picked up when his eldest son Richard began building a prominent journalistic career in the 1950s.

He spent 63 years as a freelance photographer, with many photos appearing in national publications. For more than 40 years, his photos of Waupaca and Portage counties were published in The Post-Crescent.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. James Catholic Church in Amherst. Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Jungers-Holly Funeral Home, Amherst.

Roger Pitt can be reached at , ext. 282, or by e-mail at rpitt@ postcrescent.com