Utah Cooperative Association, 1936-1983

The Utah Cooperative Association (UCA) was a wholesale cooperative owned and controlled by local cooperatives throughout the state of Utah. A cooperative is a business owned and controlled by the people who use its agricultural services. The local co-ops organized with the assistance of the State Self-Help Board August 17, 1936 with six employees and six local co-ops. By 1941, UCA became independent of the Self-Help Board and began operating as a wholesale supply co-op for farmers. By 1945 UCA had become financially strong enough to enable the organization to purchase its own warehouse and bulk plant. Their affiliation with the Cooperative League of the United States of America in the same year increased their buying power. By the early 1950s UCA had expanded its operation through the purchase of an oil refinery in the Uintah Basin and by becoming sole owner of the PAX trademark for agricultural chemicals through its acquisition of Kelly-Western Seed Company. UCA ceased to exist when it merged with the Farmer's Union Central Exchange (CENEX) in 1976. CENEX employed W.B. Robins as Western Area Development Manager at the time of the merger. CENEX is now one of the largest retail/wholesale propane networks in the nation.

Wilmer Burke Robins was born on August 21, 1917, in Scipio, Utah, the son of Clark H. Robins and Mary Marcella Johnson. W.B. as he was called moved as a young man to Salt Lake City, where he began his thirty-five year career in the development of the cooperative movement (1940-1976). At age 23 he became General Manager of the Utah Cooperative Association and served on numerous state and national councils, committees, and advisory groups. Robins is given credit for organizing the PAX Co., a subsidiary of the Utah Cooperative Association, which distributes lawn-care products. As a member of the Utah State University Board of Trustees and later chairman of the Institutional Council, Robins was a key member in the University’s policy making body. In the late 1970’s Robins established the Utah Cooperative Association Educational Trust Fund. The purpose of the fund was to establish an endowment at USU for study and research within a Cooperatives Management Program. Utah State University awarded Robins an honorary degree in Agribusiness 1983. Robins passed away November 28, 2001.