BIF-Proceedings-Final-flip

22 BIF BAKER/CUNDIFF AWARD Frank H. Baker 1923-1993 (Photograph of portrait in Saddle and Sirloin Club Gallery; Everett Raymond Kinstler, artist) Frank H. Baker, Ph.D., is widely recognized as the “Founding Father” of the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF). Frank played a key leadership role in helping establish BIF in 1968, while he was Animal Science Department Chairman at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1966-74. The Frank Baker Memorial Scholarship Award Essay competition for graduate students provides an opportunity to recognize outstanding student research and competitive writing in honor of Dr. Baker. Frank H. Baker was born May 2, 1923, at Stroud, Oklahoma, and was reared on a farm in northeastern Oklahoma. He received his B.S. degree, with distinction, in Animal Husbandry from Oklahoma State University (OSU) in 1947, after two and a half years of military service with the US Army as a paratrooper in Europe, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart. After serving three years as county extension agent and veterans agriculture instructor in Oklahoma, Frank returned to OSU to complete his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Animal Nutrition. Frank’s professional positions included teaching and research positions at Kansas State University, 1953-55; the University of Kentucky, 1955-58; Extension Livestock Specialist at OSU, 1958-62; and Extension Animal Science Programs Coordinator, USDA, Washington, D.C., 1962-66. Frank left Nebraska in 1974 to become Dean of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University, a position he held until 1979, when he began service as International Agricultural Programs Officer and Professor of Animal Science at OSU. Frank joined Winrock International, Morrilton, Arkansas, in 1981, as Senior Program Officer and Director of the International Stockmen’s School, where he remained until his retirement. Frank served on advisory committees for Angus, Hereford, and Polled Hereford beef breed associations, the National Cattlemen’s Association, Performance Registry International, and the Livestock Conservation, Inc. His service and leadership to the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) included many committees, election as vice president and as president, 1973-74. Frank was elected an ASAS Honorary Fellow in 1977, he was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and served the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) as president in 1979. Frank Baker received many awards in his career, crowned by having his portrait hung in the Saddle and Sirloin Club Gallery at the International Livestock Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky, on Nov. 16, 1986. His ability as a statesman and diplomat earned hm many awards in his career, crowned by having his portrait hung in the Saddle and Sirloin Club Gallery at the International Livestock Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky, on November 16, 1986. His ability as a statesman and diplomat for the livestock industry was to use his vision to call forth the collective best from all those around him. Frank was a “mover and shaker” who was skillful in turning “Ideas into Action” in the beef cattle performance movement. His unique leadership abilities earned him great respect among breeders and scientists alike. Frank died Feb. 15, 1993, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Larry Cundiff (Photograph taken at BIF 2014, by Angus Journal. ) Larry Cundiff, Ph.D., retired in January 2007 after 40 years of service as a research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. He was research leader of the Genetics and Breeding Research Unit at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center from 1976 until 2005, when he accepted an interim eight-month appointment as acting center director. Larry Cundiff was born in Kansas in 1939, received his B.S. from Kansas State University in 1961, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Oklahoma State in 1964 and 1966. He married his wife, Laura, in 1960. They have three children. He was on the faculty at the University of Kentucky from 1965 to 1967, before working as a research geneticist in the USDA. Cundiff has not only designed, conducted and published some of the most important beef breeding research of the 20th century, but also has led the transfer of new technology to the beef industry through his continued work in BIF and his presentations made across the nation and around the world. Continued >