Gordon Family of Public Speakers Gets Second Indiana State Fair Champion

This story will warm the hearts of parents who push their kids to do things that are good for them.

Noblesville High School junior Audrey Ratcliffe is a champion of the 2022 4-H Senior Division Public Speaking Contest at the Indiana State Fair, a contest that her 87-year-old grandpa Dick Gordon won almost 70 years ago.

The 17-year-old, a Noblesville High School junior, grew up at the Hamilton County Fair and sat through hours of public speaking from her cousins.

She saw them win, and she wanted part of that.

She also heard stories of her grandpa winning.

Dick Gordon was the 1953 Indiana State Fair Public Speaking Champion.

His subject: How to prepare a calf to show at the Fair. “You had to talk for seven minutes,” Dick Gordon once told me. “The reason I won, I knew what I was talking about with passion.” He grew up on a farm in Churubusco in northern Indiana, was a 10-year Allen County 4-H’er who prized himself on showing cattle and hogs and being a good communicator. He went on to make a career out of talking and taught two of his own children — Sylvia Gordon and Rebecca Gordon Ratcliffe — the value of public speaking.

And most recently, the 87-year-old Noblesville businessman, owner of Gordon Insurance, a family-owned insurance brokerage, watched his latest grandchild, Audrey Ratcliffe, Rebecca and Darren Ratcliffe’s daughter, be named champion of her division of the 2022 Hamilton County 4-H Fair Public Speaking contest and qualify to move on to the 2022 Indiana State Fair 4-H Public Speaking contest.

Audrey Ratcliffe became determined to win the competition when she found out that none of Grandpa Gordon’s grandkids had won the biggest speech award at the State Fair. So becoming state champion for public speaking became her goal. (In 2017, she was the county 4-H Fair’s Beginner Public Speaking Champion. But Beginner division doesn’t move on to the State Fair, only Senior and Intermediate divisions. So in 2021, she was the county 4-H Fair’s Public Speaking Reserve Grand Champion in the Senior division) Her sister, Lydia Ratcliffe, was Beginner Public Speaking Champion in 2009, and Audrey’s twin sister, Evelyn Ratcliffe, competed in the Intermediate Division as she, too, won her division at the county 4-H Fair, in 2019. Sylvia Gordon’s daughter, Susanna Sharples-Gordon, almost won the State Fair 4-H Public Speaking contest in 2017, but went 16 seconds over the time limit. “The judge told her she was the clear winner, but she had to follow rules,” the mom had told me in 2019.

Being that the Gordon family believes that any topic you know firsthand is a good topic for public speaking, Audrey Ratcliffe chose to give her speech about why she participates in 4-H. It was a pastime she knows well, as this year was her eighth year as a 4-H’er.

So after moving on from winning Public Speaking (of which she is in her fifth year of the Public Speaking 4-H project) at the county 4-H Fair, Audrey Ratcliffe on Aug. 13 was named a co-champion of the 2022 4-H Senior Division Public Speaking Contest at the State Fair for the entire state of Indiana (she was among 26 entries at the State level). The State Fair now awards three champions and rewards them each with scholarship money.

The goal to be a great speaker isn’t so much about the speech, but it is about stage presence, said Rebecca Gordon, Audrey Ratcliffe’s mom.

“Do you interest the audience?” “Do they want more?” Rebecca Gordon, 50, said, “It’s an amazing gift to be able to speak to an audience effectively.”

“We are a very competitive family and it took years of Rebecca and I practicing with all the kids to finally get a state champion,” said Sylvia Gordon, 56, Audrey’s aunt. “All four of my kids made it to state several times but never could take home the top prize.”

Grandpa Dick Gordon thinks “public speaking is the greatest tool anyone can have in life.”

Born leaders cannot lead until they are trained to lead, and public speaking is the best training ground that America offers, he teaches his family. He has always encouraged his children and grandchildren.

“To be tomorrow’s leaders, you must be able to speak enthusiastically. Dad encourages them to be winners and champions and don’t quit until you make it. Dad also has them watch him publicly speak,” Rebecca Gordon said.

The Gordon family teaches and promotes public speaking at home. Then the kids enroll in beginner speech and then progress. “We work with this on all their speech speeches,” Rebecca Gordon said.

Since Audrey Ratcliffe’s mom and sister talk for a living, “all of the kids get great advice and techniques on how to speak, how to work the room and how to read the audience,” Rebecca Gordon said. “There is so much more to be a great speaker than only the words coming out of your mouth.”

Sylvia Gordon attests to learn from the master. When she was 13, her dad made her stand up and give a speech in front of 200 insurance agents. She cried and fought him not to do it. But he wouldn’t let her get out of speaking. She talked about women’s suffrage, a project in school, and her dad wanted her to get practice speaking in front of people.

Sylvia Gordon is now glad that her dad pushed her out of her comfort zone. She made more speeches. And more speeches. And along the way, she became very good at it. Today, she is president of Gordon Marketing, which  employs more than 100 people in Noblesville.

Her sister, Rebecca Gordon Ratcliffe, is vice president of the family business.

Both are sought-after speakers in their field and are often keynote speakers around the nation.

They both encouraged their children to enroll in the 4-H Public Speaking project and compete in the 4-H Public Speaking contest each year at the county 4-H Fair.

The sisters each have four kids, and seven of the eight have spent years competing in the Public Speaking contests.

Sylvia Gordon’s youngest daughter, Bella Sharples-Gordon, took top honors, as Hamilton County Grand Champion in the Public Speaking contest in 2019, at age 16, and went on to compete at the State Fair.

Audrey Ratcliffe is the family’s last child participating in the 4-H Public Speaking project. And she still has two more years to win, again, before aging out of the 4-H program.

She’s currently on her school’s speech team. Her goal is to go to Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and become CEO of Gordon Insurance. “I couldn’t be more proud of her,” her mom said. “It’s not always easy coaching your kids, but working with Audrey to become a more solid speaker has been great. She listens and implements. It’s been a fun ride.”

Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.