Six garner Ag Alumni's top honor
Ralph E. Neill, BS '62, Corning, Iowa,
and his wife, Joyce, own and operate the 1,856-acre Douglas Center Stock
Farm, a portion of which has been continuously owned by the Neill family
since 1875. He is a past president of the Iowa Beef Improvement Federation
and is president of the Iowa Master Farmer Club. He is a former president
of the Iowa State University Extension Citizen Advisory Board. In 1993,
he and Joyce were named the regional winners (for a five-state area)
of the National Cattlemen's Association Environmental Stewardship Award.
Joseph R. Pearson, BS '64, Hartford City,
Ind. He is Indiana's deputy commissioner of agriculture and a partner
in Pearson Brothers grain farming operation in Hartford City. From 1967
to 1971, he worked as a missionary with Borneo's Iban people to help
them improve their rice production. He farmed full-time until 1995,
when he was named deputy commissioner of agriculture. Pearson oversees
many state activities, and he is a past president of the Indiana Soybean
Growers Association
