The ARA Distinguished Service Award honors an individual member of the association who has gone above and beyond the traditional responsibility to support the ag retail industry and the association – making the industry better for all.

The individual chosen for this award is selected by the ARA Executive Committee. The designee may come from any of the membership categories in ARA: retail, distributor, or manufacturer of equipment, chemicals and fertilizer. The award may be earned more than once.

Past recipients include:

2001    Ray Train, Syngenta

2002    Jim Thrift, BASF

2003    Allen Summers, Asmark    

2004    George Thornton, Agriliance and Neil Strong, Syngenta

2005    Don Pottinger, AGCO Corporation

2006    Pete Romano, Quincy Farm Chemical

2007    John Hester, Nichols Agriservice

2008    Tom Warner, Crop Production Services

2009    Dave Coppess, Heartland Ag Service

2010    Kim Bohlander, Dow Agrosciences

2011    Dan Weber, Ceres Solutions

2012    Ken Manning, Wilbur-Ellis

2013    Rod Schroeder, WinField Solutions

2014    Paul Derig, J.R. Simplot Company

2015    Billy Pirkle, Crop Production Services

2016    Jamie Southard, The Equity

2017    Steve Nielsen, United Suppliers

2018    Billy and Bob Willard, Willard Agri-Service

2019    Tim McArdle, Brandt Consolidated

2020    John Oster, Morral Companies

2021    Anne Sheehy and Meg Steward, Yargus Construction (now AGI)

2022    Gary Vogen, Yara North America

2023    Toby Hlavinka, American Plant Food Corp.

Nominations are open for this award and may be submitted using the form below. The ARA Executive Committee will select the winner once all nominations have been received.

Nomination deadline:

July 1, 2024