Dr. A. E. 'Gene' Freeman, Professor of Animal Science and Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture at Iowa State University,has been selected to receive one of the dairy industry's most prestigious awards, the National Dairy Shrine Guest of Honor. The award, given annually to a contemporary dairy leader for outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the dairy industry, will be presented at the National Dairy Shrine Awards banquet in Madison WI October 4 in conjunction with World Dairy Expo.

Reared on a West Virginia farm, Dr. Freeman completed his B.S. and M.S. degree from West Virginia and his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1957, then rose to a position of international

Each year, National Dairy Shrine recognizes a contemporary dairy leader for outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the dairy industry. This award, "Guest of Honor" is one of the industry's most prestigious. The recipient needs not be a National Dairy Shrine member, although the nomination must be made by a member. Portraits of honorees are displayed at the National Dairy Shrine Visitors' Center in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.

prominence as an animal breeding researcher at Iowa State University. Many people close to his chosen profession would declare hm history's most influential dairy cattle breeding educator.

Dr. Freeman's influence was generated by:

• His mentoring of a large number of graduate students representing all corners of the globe, 55 of whom he guided through PhD and/or MS programs. He attracted the best and brightest, many who have distinguished themselves in proprietary business or academia.
• The vast number of writings and oral presentations he made to groups ranging from the academic elite to dairy producers.
• His ability to recognize the practical problems dairy farmers face and to apply scientific principles to solving such problems. He led the way in development of sire proving programs, USDA sire summaries, calving ease analysis and health trait research. Universal acceptance of these findings has meant millions of dollars in savings to the worldwide dairy industry.
• Early in his career, Dr. Freeman was instrumental in the successful promotion of the progeny testing of dairy cattle bulls in many herds. Nearly all the research he conducted was directed toward applied problems facing the dairy industry.

His list of research projects includes calving ease, dairy cow fertility, net economic merit, mitochondrial DNA, age adjustment factors, the role of type in selecting programs, multiple-trait evaluation, biases in genetic evaluations and the effects of selection for milk yield on health of cows.

Dr. Freeman's working relationship with Genex Cooperative Inc. and its predecessors over nearly 40 years has been the one with the greatest impact. It provided an opportunity to collect unique field data such as health data on daughters of progreny test sires, produced a significant amount of excellent research, and provided the AI unit with a sound underpinning for its genetic program.

At a less integrated level, Freeman has had a strong and continuing relationship with CR Delta and its predecessors in Holland. Many of these interactions were initiated when Dutch students spent their "practical" period in Ames, or during his sabbatical in Wageningen. The leaders of CR Delta say, with Gene's advice and guidance, the Dutch cattle industry has been transformed from a multi-amateur cooperative structure, with only a regional interest, into one global thinking organization with a strong commitment to state-of-the-art product development.