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Ag Alumni Association honors ag leaders

Six agricultural leaders received Purdue University’s Agricultural Alumni Association’s top honor this past weekend at the Ag Alumni’s annual Fish Fry.  The Certificate of Distinction recognizes contributions to agriculture and society that go far beyond the requirements of a job or profession.  Donya Lester, the association’s executive director says the honorees represent “the best of our agricultural and natural resources profession.”

This year’s recipients are:

* Dan J. Arnholt (B.S. 1968) of Columbus, Indiana. Former general manager and CEO of the Bartholomew County REMC, Arnholt has an extensive record of achievement and service to the rural electric utility industry.

* D. Howard Doster of Waynesville, Ohio. Doster joined the Purdue University agricultural economics faculty as an Extension farm management specialist in 1968 and helped 40 other faculty members start the Purdue Top Farmer Crop Workshop, a program he would lead for more than 30 years. Doster taught six classes at Purdue and co-wrote three high school texts on entrepreneurship. He also created and coordinated 20 annual Farming Together Workshops and coordinated the farm records program and annual Indiana Farm Management Tour.

* Max W. Evans (B.S. 1957) of Overland Park, Kansas. Evans had a distinguished career of 55 years in farm management and consulting for operations in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Mississippi, Vermont, North Carolina, Haiti and Saudi Arabia. In 1981, Evans became vice president and head of the Farm Management Department for Union Central Bank & Trust in Des Moines, Iowa.

* Scott Allen Jamieson (B.S. 1984) of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Jamieson has devoted his career and much of his civic contributions to advancing the tree care profession, keeping arborists safe, protecting and enhancing the urban forest and empowering others to be environmental stewards. He is a vice president of Bartlett Tree Experts, responsible for corporate partnerships and national recruiting in 27 states

* Michael A. Shuter (B.S. 1973) of Frankton, Indiana. Shuter operates Shuter Sunset Farms Inc., a fourth-generation family farm, with his wife, Susan, and sons, Brian and Patrick. He has taken innovative approaches to the operation of corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs. As an example, Shuter was among the first in his area to adopt conservation tillage, going to no-till corn in 1983, partially in response to high energy prices. Innovative finishing houses have computer-controlled ventilation and take pigs from 21 days to market weight in the same building, eliminating shrinkage that can occur with moving to a new building.

* Thomas E. Springstun (B.S. 1977, M.S. 1981) of Scottsburg, Indiana. Springstun worked in Purdue Extension for 35 years until his retirement in 2012, serving Clark, Greene and Scott counties. Among his accomplishments, Springstun helped to develop a free, countywide recycling program in Scott County amid rising waste disposal costs.