The Saskatchewan Agricultural Graduates’ Association at the University of Saskatchewan has conferred honorary lifetime memberships to three former graduates:
- Ewald Lammerding, a graduate from 1988, has been on the association’s executive for 24 years. Lammerding currently edits the SAGA newsletter. For 18 years he worked in the animal science department at the university and was the Western College of Veterinary Medicine’s muskox herdsman.
- Harold Chapman was a 1943 graduate. At 102 years old, he has had a long career in the co-operative movement. Chapman worked with the provincial government in the creation of the co-operative Matador farm after the Second World War and went on to develop other agricultural, fishing, housing and trapping co-ops.
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In the 1950s, working with the Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life, Chapman helped the government develop structural reforms that worked out roles for the various levels of the public service.
He became the first director of the Co-operative Institute, later the Western Co-op College and finally the Co-op College of Canada.
In the 1970s and 1980s he served as the member and public relations director for Federated Co-operatives Ltd. He has been awarded the Order of Canada.
- Vern Racz, who graduated from the U of S in 1968, became well-known to many livestock producers in the region as the director of the university’s Feed Centre.
He died last fall, leaving a legacy of research and information for producers.
Racz contributed to animal nutrition and feed development throughout his career, including as a director of the Saskatchewan Feed Testing Laboratory.
He was always on the lookout for new feed development opportunities at the university’s animal and poultry science department and was a strong believer in transfer of technology to producers. He is a member of the Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame.
