Purdue News

January 22, 1999 Ag Alumni honor four with Certificates of Distinction WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Four Purdue University agriculturists have been honored for their lifetime dedication to the field of agriculture. Donald J. Pershing of Frankfort and Lawrence P. Bohl, Donald H. Scott and William J. Stadelman, all of West Lafayette, received the Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association's Certificate of Distinction at the association's annual meeting, the Purdue Ag Fish Fry. The award is the association's highest honor and recognizes individuals for their service to agriculture beyond the call of duty, according to Donya Lester, the association's executive secretary. Bohl has been a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics since 1970. He has taught multiple sections of an introductory agricultural economics course taken by most freshmen in the School of Agriculture. For the past 20 years, Bohl has been head undergraduate counselor for the department. All told, he has taught or counseled more than 10,000 students in a school that has about 30,000 living alumni. "Among Purdue Agriculture's good teachers, Larry is clearly one of the very best. He is a champion of the cause of quality teaching," said Lowell Hardin, professor emeritus and former department head. Bohl graduated from Montana State University in 1953 and earned master's and doctoral degrees from Purdue. Pershing, a retired Purdue Cooperative Extension Service economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics, is recognized as a pioneer in the use of computerized decision-making tools in farm management. He helped train and support more than 40 Extension educators in the use of the Family and Agricultural Resource Management (FARM) program during the farm financial crisis of the early 1980s. "Never once can I recall when Don said no to a request for help," said David Petritz, agriculture and natural resources program leader for Purdue Extension. "In many cases, he didn't need to be asked, he just jumped in and helped when he saw a need." Pershing received a bachelor's degree in agricultural education from Purdue in 1951, served in the U.S. Army in Korea, then returned to Purdue to earn a master's in agronomy in 1954. He retired in 1994. Scott, a professor of plant pathology, was Purdue's primary crop disease Extension specialist for 30 years. He retired in 1998. "Don Scott has had a major positive impact on agriculture in Indiana and across the Corn Belt," said Larry Svajgr, executive director of the Indiana Crop Improvement Association. Although primarily an Extension specialist, Scott also taught Purdue courses on plant diseases and developed new courses in three subject areas. In 1997, he published a photographic book, "Barns of Indiana," which celebrates the vanishing farm structures on the Hoosier landscape. He donated a portion of the book's profits to scholarships for Purdue agricultural students. Scott earned a bachelor's degree from Purdue in agronomy in 1956. He then earned master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois. Stadelman, a Purdue faculty member from 1955 to 1983 and a professor emeritus of animal sciences, has trained more than 75 percent of the researchers working in poultry products in the United States. His students have assumed management and leadership positions in academia and industry around the world. "The poultry industry has benefited from his superior research, his role as an educator and his expertise in the fields of egg nutrition, egg products and poultry meat products," said Franklin Perdue, chairman of Perdue Farms Inc.'s executive committee. Stadelman graduated from Washington State in 1940, then earned a master's in wildlife management and a doctoral degree in biochemistry, both from Pennsylvania State University. Source: Donya Lester, (765) 494-8593; e-mail, dcl@agad.purdue.edu Writer: Tom Campbell, (765) 494-8084; e-mail, tc@aes.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page