NAADA Award Winners You can download a pdf of past award winners here.
President’s Gavel Dave Mugler, Associate Dean of Agriculture at Kansas State University and former NAADA president made the gavel and presented it to the organization at the end of his presidency. The gavel is made of Mulberry and more specifically of a Mulberry root from a tree that stood on Dave's family farm in Kansas. It was Dave's wish that the gavel be passed from president to president and that it becomes a reminder of "NAADA's roots" (root of the Mulberry tree and root of the organization certainly intended) from which the organization was given life.
Presidents Click here to see a list of past NAADA presidents.
Conferences Click here for an archive of recent NAADA conferences and photos. Download the list of previous NAADA Conferences from January 1976 to our most recent conference. The list includes the date, location, and event name.
NAADA 30-Year History Book
Longtime NAADA Historian, Mauri Williamson, wrote and provided many of the early photos used in this book. Mauri was one of the founders of NAADA and, though retired from Purdue, still attends the annual conference.
A Personal Note from Mauri Williamson
When it was suggested that I might be the one to write the history of the first thirty years of the National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association, I accepted the responsibility with a great deal of glee. You see, I was in on the gestation and birth of the organization from the very beginning. It would be easy, I thought. However, I found the task to be a great deal more difficult. Melding the serious goals and intentions with the unbridled enthusiasm of the membership with the curious ambience of the group as a whole was not easy. I must be careful, I felt, not to subjugate the seriousness of purpose with the rather unique social qualities of the members.
As you will quickly find, I made no positive scholarly pomposity in my reports on the Conferences. Rather, I attempted to deal intimately with the people who make NAADA so successful. They are open-minded, progressive, and thirsty for new ways of doing things. They are extremely loyal to the agricultural profession, and to the people who work in that business.
Often times, I have dealt rather lightly with methodology although their technologies are, to say the least, carefully implemented.
It's far more rewarding, in this case, to talk about the folks who devise and activate techniques to recruit and educate students, raise notable funds for useful purposes, and to ferret out and honor professionals who are the trademark of American agriculture and natural resources.
It has been an especial privilege to reacquaint myself with those who have made the National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association the sterling organization those fertile fields and they will lead their society into a productive future.
When it was suggested that I might be the one to write the history of the first thirty years of the National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association, I accepted the responsibility with a great deal of glee. You see, I was in on the gestation and birth of the organization from the very beginning. It would be easy, I thought. However, I found the task to be a great deal more difficult. Melding the serious goals and intentions with the unbridled enthusiasm of the membership with the curious ambience of the group as a whole was not easy. I must be careful, I felt, not to subjugate the seriousness of purpose with the rather unique social qualities of the members.