Crawford Reid Memorial Award

This award was established in 1979 and retired in 2017. Named for the second president of the Irrigation Association, Canadian Crawford Reid, the award recognized individuals who have significantly advanced both the irrigation industry and proper irrigation techniques and procedures outside the United States. Winners of this award include the following:

2016

Andrii Gogolev
Terra Tarsa (Kakhovka, Ukraine)

Andrii Gogolev began with a degree in soil science, and in 1996, as assistant professor at the Odessa Agricultural Faculty, Gogolev performed a translation for a seminar on drip irrigation tapes. He was fascinated and became passionate about introducing this technology in Ukraine. He founded his own company, Terra Ltd., in 1998 to become a mainstream supplier and was the first to introduce thin-walled laterals into the Ukraine with T-Tape. From there, he went into the dealership business for pivots and drip. He then sold those businesses to focus on farming.

Gogolev has a strong passion for the proper development of water user associations (which are groups of farmers that must operate the sub-distribution systems that receive water from the main canal systems) and in the legal framework and policies that guide water development and operation on a state and national level. He is heavily involved in various working groups that provide input and guidance for the present process of government reform, as the nation transitions from a centralized mindset to a more dynamic and Western-type operation.

2015

Mark Huntley
FH Consulting (La Jolla, California)

Huntley spent six years in the U.S. Navy before joining T-Systems International as a quality control manager in 1988. Over the next six years, Huntley worked his way from general management to executive management, taking on the role of president of T-Systems Europe. From 1994 to 1995, Huntley was responsible for all aspects of the French corporation, serving markets in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Under his leadership and working with a great team, T-Systems’ business doubled in less than two years.

Huntley continued working with T-Systems until 2008, when the company was purchased by John Deere Water. Huntley spent the next two years working closely with the president of John Deere Water to help with the integration of the two companies. During his career, he was responsible for all aspects of global business and helped double the business. He now works as a consultant in La Jolla, California, where he resides with his wife, Laurence, and three children.

2014

James “Jim” Roberts
Deceased

Roberts was an engineer by education, an inventor by nature and a farmer by choice. After observing the established agriculture irrigation methods for citrus groves in the 1950s, Roberts was convinced that there was a better way to irrigate while conserving water and improving the quality and quantity of crops. He experimented with low volume/drip irrigation beginning in 1959, and in 1968, he founded Roberts Irrigation Products, Inc. in the family home on his farm.

Roberts invented and patented numerous efficient irrigation devices over the years. He and his wife, Betty, took an innovative irrigation idea conceived on a farm and built a business that sold products all over the globe. Roberts lived to see the early idea of low volume/drip irrigation become an accepted worldwide practice. In 1999, he received the Irrigation Association’s Industry Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to the irrigation industry.

2012

Chris Le Conte
Smart Watering Systems, Milton, Ontario, Canada

After founding Smart Watering Systems in 2007, Le Conte quickly embraced the emergence of technology and its place in the landscape irrigation industry. His company has grown to one of the most successful firms in Ontario, Canada, and later expanded to British Columbia. Through unyielding dedication to water conservation and innovative use of digital platforms, such as a mobile app that shows customers tangible water savings, Le Conte has helped many Smart Watering Systems clients achieve 80 percent water savings per year in landscape water use.

2011

Dr. Jack Keller
Logan, Utah

Through his public and private activities, Keller has provided advisory services in irrigated agriculture development and water management in more than 60 countries. Many of his professional activities involved leading multidisciplinary teams to do irrigation project design, planning and evaluation, and regional irrigation sector analysis. He serves on the U.S. and international boards of International Development Enterprises, a nongovernmental organization that focuses on rural poverty alleviation through a market creation approach to development using irrigation as an entry point.

Other Past Ricipients

2008
Karen Hounsome
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

2005
Ronald Gilbert
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

2004
Jack Buzzard
Glendora, California

2003
Gary Underhill
Aliso Viejo, California

2002
Denis Baudequin and Bruno Molle
Aix-en-Provence, France

2000
Ted Van der Gulik
Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada

1999
Jean Piaget
Uniedal, Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa

1998
Musa Nimah
Beirut, Lebanon

1997
Bhavarlal Hiralal Jain
Jaigaon, India

1996
M. Abu-Zeid
Cairo, Egypt

1994
Marinus Gijsberthus Bos
Wageningen, The Netherlands

1993
Abdul Rahman Bin Abdul Aziz Alsheikh
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

1992
Melvyn Kay
Bedford, England

1991
Len Ring
Raymond, Alberta, Canada

1990
Luis Santos Pereira
Lisbon, Portugal

1989
Jan Feyen
Leuven Heverlee, Belgium

1988
Robert Williams-Freeman
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

1987
Terence D. Heiler
Canterbury, New Zealand

1986
James S. Coulthart
Sydney, Australia

1983
Robert S. Tait
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

1979
Francisco J. Jimeno
Mexico City, Mexico