2006 Alumni and Friends Award Winners

by Kay Maurin

The UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) Alumni & Friends Association Board of Directors is pleased to recognize the 2005-06 recipients of Alumni & Friends Awards. Don Ingle, board president, presented the awards at the college banquet April 24.

CALS alumni award winners pictured with Dean John Hammel (center)
at the CALS awards banquet on April 24 were (from left) Gary Steiner,
Nancy Wanamaker, Bert Brackett, and Tom Trail.
Other winner were unable to attend.

Please join the college in applauding them for their outstanding service and dedication to the college and to their professions. For more information about the college Alumni & Friends Association please see www.cals.uidaho.edu.

CALS Alumni Achievement Award

Eldon Muller '80, '82, received both degrees in agricultural engineering. Since then, he has worked for the Walt Disney World Company helping to improve their rides and shows. He works to improve safety, efficiency, and reliability of existing systems while also proposing entirely new technologies or systems. Muller continues to make Walt Disney's parks the most magical of places on Earth. He makes all of us at the UI proud. 

Distinguished Alumni Awards

Tom Trail '58, got his degree in animal veterinary science. Trail served in the Peace Corps in Ecuador and founded International Trails, a private agricultural consulting company. An extension educator at Washington State University for many years, Trail in 1996 ran for and won a House seat in the Idaho Legislature. He currently serves on the agricultural affairs, education, and the commerce and human resources committees. He worked hard to pass the recent Idaho Farm Worker Minimum Wage Bill.

Bert Brackett '66, with his degree in animal veterinary science, serves the Idaho Cattle Association and is the governor's appointee to the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission. Brackett has been both a leader and visionary in the livestock industry; he also runs his family's ranch. Brackett was appointed to serve in the Idaho Legislature in 2005.

Distinguished Associate Awards

Ethel Farnsworth has worked in consumer sciences since 1941, when she graduated from Michigan State University and began teaching home economics. Later she and her husband Ken introduced Rhodes Bread to Idaho. Ethel later continued her education, working on a UI master's in adult education. She currently works as the Rhodes family and consumer sciences professional, developing recipes and contributing to newspapers, magazines, and cookbooks. An innovator in frozen dough and solar oven cooking,

Farnsworth also has contributed generously to the Idaho Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Association and student groups within the UI School of Family and Consumer Sciences. 

Nancy Wanamaker has worked for 30 years as a professor for the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences, which she has directed for the past five years. Known nationally as an expert in child development and family relations, Wanamaker also serves on committees and advisory boards and works to benefit local children and families. She helped create a new UI degree in early childhood development and education.

Dean's Achievement Awards

Laird Noh '60, used his degrees in business and animal husbandry and business administration (University of Chicago), to become a leader in the livestock industry at local, state, and national levels. He serves on advisory boards for the CALS dean and the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. He also chairs the Rocky Mountain Sheep Marketing Association board, and is on the executive committee of The Nature Conservancy, Idaho. Elected to the Idaho State Senate in 1980, Senator Noh served for 24 years--22 as chair of the Resources and Environment Committee, with oversight of Idaho's natural resources, including water, fish and game, state lands, surface and ground water quality, state parks, and operations at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

Gary Steiner '61, '64, earned his UI degrees in plant science and completed a PhD from Michigan State University in 1985. The same year, he launched Steiner Elevators, which continues to thrive in the Rexburg area. In 1997 Steiner and a few CALS alumni planned an alumni association for the college--today's CALS Alumni and Friends Association. Steiner served on the board of directors from 1997 to 2004.