Purdue News

December 12, 1997

Purdue Extension specialists honored at annual conference

They received awards for outstanding contributions to Indiana Extension from the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Specialist Association.

• Bill Uhrig, recently retired Extension agricultural economist, received the Career Award, which goes to a specialist with more than 20 years of service. Uhrig joined Purdue's agricultural economics department in 1967. His nominators said: "Throughout his 30-year career, he has enhanced the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service image and gained the respect of countless Extension educators, farmers and agribusiness clientele."

  Uhrig has been a recognized grain marketing specialist on the state, regional and national level. He's conducted more than 2,000 Extension meetings on grain marketing and price analysis, and he was coordinator of Purdue's Economic Outlook Program for 18 years. Among his other awards and accomplishments, Uhrig twice received the Premier Forecaster Award for Crop Production and Prices from the American Agricultural Economics Association.

• Agricultural economist Chris Hurt received the Senior Award, which goes to a specialist with 11 to 20 years of service. He joined the department in 1981.

  According to his nominators, Hurt has made presentations at more than 1,200 Extension meetings, spoken to 94,000 clients, done 2,000 media interviews, and written more than 300 articles and newsletters for both farm and nonfarm audiences. He's developed educational programs in a number of areas, including economic outlook, grain and livestock marketing, analysis of farm prices, farm program evaluation, risk management, and swine economics. One highly recognized program Hurt helped coordinate is "Positioning Your Pork Operation for the 21st Century," which is widely used in Indiana and the Midwest to help pork producers adopt new swine technology. Hurt is known for his skill in making economic concepts easy to understand.

• Cathy Burwell, Extension specialist in water quality and environment, received the Junior Award. Burwell joined the Purdue staff in 1972 as an Extension educator in Noble County and became a specialist in 1991. The junior award is given to a specialist with fewer than 10 years of service.

  "Cathy Burwell has had great impact at national, state and county levels through her work with the National Extension Water Quality Database and through the training she has provided for Extension educators and county staff in the use of computer technology," said Burwell's nominators.

  Through her efforts, the water quality database has grown to more than 2,500 entries with more than 1,000 full-text, searchable and retrievable documents. She's an often-requested trainer and presenter at meetings statewide and nationwide, and she's conducted a national videoconference on the water quality database. Also, Burwell's computer expertise has benefited Extension educators and consumers through the numerous training sessions and informational meetings she's presented on shopping for and using computers.

• Douglas Powell, who came to Purdue's Department of Child Development and Family Studies in 1984 and became its head in 1991, received the 1997 Special Award.

  Powell received the award in recognition of his authorship of the fathering curriculum, "It's My Child Too," and his ongoing dedication to the project. Besides writing the curriculum, Powell helped train 33 county teams to teach it. The idea for the project was conceived by several Indiana juvenile court judges who identified the need and shared it with Powell. Powell supervised a graduate student in the interviewing of young fathers as to their needs and developed the curriculum from that information. A pilot program was conducted, and the curriculum was revised. Feedback from participating fathers indicates that they learn and apply positive parenting practices as a result of the six-week program.

• "From Purdue To You" received the Team Award this year. The popularity of informational poster sessions at the state meeting of the Purdue Council for the Advancement of Research, Extension and Teaching (P-CARET) led to a request for the display to be shared with citizens at various locations around the state. Faculty and staff traveled to seven daylong presentations around Indiana, giving the public an opportunity to see 35 posters representing a cross-section of programs, research activities and services in the Schools of Agriculture, Consumer and Family Science, and Veterinary Medicine. It also gave them an opportunity to interact with staff members from these schools. Four sites -- Columbus, Vincennes, Valparaiso and Fort Wayne -- hosted the display.

  Team members include: Don Stichter, Dave Bresnahan, Rob Snorek, Dave King, Chris Sigurdson, Steve Cain, Laura Hoelscher, Jane Brown, Crystal Hughes, Paula Dillard, Amy Carter, Mike Kerper and Pam Lassiter from the Department of Agricultural Communication Service; John Trott and Eldon Ortman from Agriculture Research Programs; David Petritz from the Cooperative Extension Service; Donya Lester from the Agricultural Alumni Association; Jon Cain from Bartholomew County ; Jerry Nelson from Knox County ; Roger Moll from Allen County ; Dan Fleming from Porter County ; and many faculty and staff presenters.

Source: Floyd Branson, (765) 494-8490; e-mail, Floyd_Branson@ces.purdue.edu
Writer: Andrea McCann, (765) 494-8406; e-mail, mccann@aes.purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu

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