Awards

Lifetime Achievement Awards

NAAE awards Lifetime Achievement Award to individuals who have contributed to the advancement of agricultural education on a regional or national level. Each recipient received a plaque and a cash award to attend the annual conference in Kansas City. The National Pork Board sponsors this award.

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Region I
Robert Gappmeyer
American Fork High School
Wallsburg, Utah

Gappmeyer served as the agricultural instructor at American Fork High School for 32 years. For 20 years, the program was primarily based upon agriculture mechanics and animal science. Over the years, however, the community and the need for agricultural education changed immensely. With the changing times, Gappmeyer furthered his education and expanded the program to include floral design, horticulture and biology agriculture.

Although Gappmeyer retired two years ago, he still remains active within agricultural education by judging FFA contests and helping students with projects, such as junior livestock shows. Recently, Gappmeyer was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for the Utah FFA State Association.

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Region II
Walter Upton
State Department of Workforce Education
Arkansas FFA Association
Enola, Arkansas

Upton began his career in agricultural education in 1962 and has devoted himself to serving agricultural educators, programs and students since that time. Upton served as an agricultural education teacher at Enola High School for 16 years. In 1978, he became the State Executive Secretary for the Arkansas FFA Association as well as the Area Supervisor of Agricultural Education and the State Department of Vocational-Technical Education.

In addition to devoting his career to agricultural education, Upton has dedicated much time to helping students and education in general. Upton served as an Enola School Board member for ten years and also as a National FFA Board of Trustees member. Because of his service to agricultural education, Upton has been recognized with the Arkansas Honorary FFA Degree.

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Region III
Richard Aide
Wiscinsin Association of Agricultural Educators
Fox Lake, Wisconsin

Aide began his career in agricultural education in 1965 and has devoted himself to serving agricultural educators, programs and students since that time. Presently, Aide serves as the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Association of Agricultural Educators (WAAE). He has held this position since 1991 and feels his major contribution has been to provide a four-day professional development conference each summer for agricultural educators.

In addition to being an agricultural instructor for more than 30 years, Aide was a member of numerous state and national committees and organizations. From 1970 to 1982, he served as the chairperson of the statewide committee for curriculum development in agricultural education. In 1987, he served as a member of the National FFA Agrimarketing Development Task Force as a consultant to the National FFA Board of Directors. For his many contributions to agricultural education and FFA, Aide has been recognized with the Honorary American FFA Degree, Wisconsin FFA Association Distinguished Service Award and WAAE Distinguished Secondary Educator Award to name just a few.

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Region IV
Brenda Oldfield
Scott County High School (Retired)
Georgetown, Kentucky

Retiried in June after approximately 30 years of teaching agricultural education, Brenda Oldfield contributed to the development of agricultural education knowledge across the country, as well as around the world.

Oldfield served as the first female agriculture teacher in Arizona and as the teacher at Morgan County High School and most recently at Scott County High School in Kentucky. As a teacher in Scott County, she established a classroom aquaculture program, founded the Kentucky FFA Foundation and established the Scott County FFA Alumni.

Nationally, she has participated in an agriculture exchange program to Ecuador and Japan and has hosted Japanese and Ecuadoran students when they visited the United States. Additionally, she established the Partners of America Agriculture program in Riobamba, Ecuador.

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Region V
Jerry Cooper
Hendersonville High School (Retired)
Gallatin, Tennessee

Even as a high school student, Jerry Cooper of Gallatin, Tennessee recognized the importance of becoming active in one's community and country. One of the first steps that he took toward becoming an involved citizen in his community was serving as president of his local FFA chapter, president of the local 4-H club and senior patrol leader of the local Boy Scout troop in 1967. In 1968-69, he served in the United States Marine Corp. where he received two Purple Hearts for action in Vietnam.

Cooper is now a retired agriculture teacher from Henderson High School. During his tenure as a teacher, he assisted ten student teachers to advance their skills in the classroom and was instrumental in the development of the agriculture teacher mentoring program at the state and national level. He has maintained a lifetime FFA Alumni membership and has served as a member of the NAAE for 29 years.

"The greatest honor of my career is having had the opportunity to work with thousands of high school students and guiding 13 teams to National Career Development Event (CDE) competitions," said Cooper. "The road to excellence through FFA CDE competitions crosses into everything students do."

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Region VI
Clifford Day
State FFA Facilitator
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Retired after teaching 32 years at the Garden Spot High School in New Holland, Pennsylvania, Clifford Day is a premier example of an individual dedicated to agricultural education. In addition to teaching seven classes and advising the local FFA chapter, Day served as the Chairman of the FFA State Scoring/ Recording Committee for 18 years. He also served as the Chairman of the Career Development Event (CDE) Committee, which required him to work closely with FFA CDE committee chairpersons to improve the CDE competitions yearly.

Even after retirement, Day has remained active with the agricultural education profession. Currently, Day serves as the State FFA Facilitator. He is responsible for coordinating activities of Pennsylvania FFA members in competitions at the Eastern States Exposition and National FFA Convention. He also secures and scores the Pennsylvania American FFA Degrees, State FFA Degrees, Proficiency Award applications and numerous other FFA applications.

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