Three graduates of the Department of Soil & Crop Sciences were recipients of our “HONOR ALUM” award at a ceremony and luncheon in September. They are, left to right, Dr. Ken Vogel and Donna Souther. Col. Gordon Simmons, pictured separately, was unable to attend the ceremony.
Dr. Ken Vogel received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Colorado State University in 1965 and 1967. Following service as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1974. Currently Ken is a Research Geneticist and Research Leader with the ARS-USDA and is an Adjunct Professor of Agronomy and Horticulture at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE. His primary area of research has been breeding and genetics of introduced and native grasses and associated management research. Since 1990, he has been conducting research to develop switchgrass into a biomass energy crop. Ken is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Donna Norwood Souther is a Colorado native who received her B.S. degree in Agronomy in 1980 from Colorado State University. Donna received her Juris Doctor (Law) degree from the University of Colorado Law School in 1984 , and she received her Master of Arts from the University of Northern Colorado in Human Communications in 1999. In 1996 she was selected as Academic Dean at Aims Community college (ACC) in Greeley, CO, and in 2006 was appointed Chief Academic Officer and Executive Dean at ACC. Donna has received many awards, including Administrator of the Year from ACC, a Faculty award from the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Educational System, an Excellence in Teaching - Aims Faculty Award, and Excellence in Teaching - the William F. Hartman Bell of Distinction.
Col. Gordon Simmons, a native of Wyoming, graduated from Sheridan High School and went to work for a sugar beet company. One of the company agronomists highly encouraged him to come to Colorado A&M (now Colorado State University). He followed the advice and received his B.S. degree in 1943. He then embarked on a very distinguished military career, serving in both WWII and the Korean War. Following WW II, the U.S. Army stationed Gordon in Missoula, MT, where he and his wife purchased a home with a one acre lot that he developed into a highly productive vegetable and fruit farm. Gordon has been strongly committed to education. He served on the Missoula, Montana School Board for 25 years, during which time he served as President for a term, and on the Montana State Council of Vocational Education.
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