Nearly 40 years ago (1969) at a Penn State Turfgrass Conference in State College, Joe Duich, Ph.D., Frank Dobie and Tom Burrows met over coffee (or perhaps it was beer) and talked about a way to perpetuate the camaraderie among Penn State turfgrass program graduates. Thus, the Penn State Turfgrass Alumni Association was born.
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The founding fathers of the Penn State Turfgrass Alumni Association pictured on Feb. 23, 2007, in Anaheim, Calif. Left to right: Joe Duich, Ph.D., Frank Dobie and Tom Burrows. |
The three agreed that such an association should only serve to bring graduates together occasionally and not have some complicated agenda. In other words, “Keep it simple.” The by-laws were written on a paper napkin (after being missing for many years it miraculously reappeared for the photo above). The by-laws stated that there would be three officers.
Each would serve two years as the Secretary, then as Treasurer and finally as President. A replacement for the retiring officer would be selected by the trio from the alumni at large (thus eliminating nominations, politics, elections and a bunch of paperwork). Duich declined to become an officer but agreed to maintain the alumni addresses. Dobie became the first President – a decision made by a coin toss. Dobie and Burrows asked 1961 graduate Gerry Murphy to complete the first Board.
Each new trio of officers, for the past four decades, has followed this format. Alumni voluntarily pay nominal dues (less than the cost of a hotel breakfast) and meet once a year at the GCSAA conference. Between 80 and 100 graduates attend the annual alumni breakfast which lasts about two hours. The address list of over a thousand graduates is now kept by Sue Eisenhauer (sed1@psu.edu) at Penn State. The current officers are Terry Laurent, President, Jon O’Donnell, Treasurer, and Matt Schmitz, Secretary.