Sheep Industry News January 2023

Pope, Pfeiffer Receive Wool Excellence Awards

D r. Ronald Pope and Faron Pfeiffer – two researchers who each spent decades working in the American wool industry – have been selected by the Wool Roundtable as winners of the 2023 Wool Excellence Awards. They will be honored on Jan. 19 at the Wool Recognition Lunch during the ASI Annual Convention in Fort Worth, Texas. Pope was raised on a sheep and angora goat ranch near Cross Plains, Texas, and graduated from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, with a bachelor’s and master’s in animal science before pursuing his doctorate in wool science from the University of Wyoming in 1982. After graduation, he owned sheep and alfalfa operations of the family ranch for 10 years. In 1996, he joined Pro ducer’s Marketing Cooperative Inc. as a general manager. Prior to that, he worked for ASI. From 1991 to 1995, he was the association’s director of raw wool services, responsible for over seeing national programs to improve domestic wool marketing options. This included collaborating with producers to encourage them to prepare their products for market in accordance with inter nationally recognized standards for wool preparation and packag ing. He was also directed raw wool services-international from 1995 to 1997, where he was in charge of the organization's international marketing to select foreign markets. In 2013, he was hired as the Texas A&M AgriLife Research scien

tist in charge of daily operations at the Bill Sims Wool and Mohair Research Laboratory in San Angelo, Texas. He left there in 2021, but he is still working with PMCI as a general manager. “Ron is everything wool,” said ASI Deputy Director Rita Kourlis Samuelson. “He was the first raw wool specialist at ASI, manages a warehouse, and used all his experience and education while employed at Texas A&M AgriLife. His expertise, cut-to-the-chase candor, honesty and dry sense of humor all mixed together have made it a pleasure and honor to work with him. But, most notably, I value when he has shared a Texas saying that brings clarity to a complex situation and, yet, always makes me smile.” Pfeiffer enrolled at Angelo State University in 1974, graduating in 1979 with bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s in animal science in 1982. While attending ASU, he was employed with Hoelscher Pump and Supply from 1974 to 1977 and Mid-West Feed Yards in 1978. Upon graduation, he worked for ASU briefly before being employed by the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center for the remainder of his career – first for Dr. Millard Calhoun in the Small Ruminant Nutrition lab and later for Dr. Chris Lupton upon completion of the Bill Sims Wool and Mohair Research Lab. He retired from the wool lab in September 2022. “Faron Pfeiffer has been a central figure at the Bill Sims Wool

Faron Pfeiffer and Dr. Ron Pope of Texas have been selected as winners of the Wool Excellence Award and will be honored at the Wool Recognition Lunch during the 2023 ASI Annual Convention.

14 • Sheep Industry News • sheepusa.org

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