Your distinguished colleagues

What makes someone “distinguished?”

It’s been my privilege to interview the recipients of GCSAA’s Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award for many of the 10 years I’ve been with GCM, and almost without exception their reactions to the honor go something like this: “Who, me?”

GCSAA’s board of directors selects the winners of this award from nominations submitted by affiliated chapters or association members based on the individuals’ “outstanding, substantive and enduring contribution to the advancement of the golf course superintendent profession.” The winners themselves are typically reluctant to agree, though always flattered.

No exception was one of the 2009 winners (detailed profiles of the recipients of the 2009 Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Awards appear in this issue, beginning on Page 72), Monroe Miller, who admitted to me that when GCSAA President David S. Downing II, CGCS, broke the news, “I didn’t quite collapse, but I was stunned.” Likewise, another 2009 winner, Mark Esoda, CGCS, called the experience “surreal.” Many past winners have told me that when they check the roster of past winners (and they always do!), they can’t believe the company they’re in. To that, I say, “Why not?”

All three of this year’s winners, for example, are distinguished in highly special ways.

By all accounts, the late George Hamilton, Ph.D., was the kind of college professor we all wished we had: super-smart, but caring and dedicated to his students. Distinguished? When I was preparing Dr. Hamilton’s obituary for this magazine in 2004, one of his Penn State colleagues, Peter Landschoot, Ph.D., told me, “I derived tremendous inspiration from George during his last year of life. He was positive, strong, and never, ever gave up hope that he would live on to help others. … At his last Penn State Golf Turf Conference, George gave a very moving speech on living life to the fullest and establishing priorities in our lives. It was perhaps the finest presentation I have ever observed at any turfgrass conference.”

While many in the superintendent profession find themselves practically paralyzed by the mounting pile of legislation regulating what they can and can’t do to care for their golf courses, Esoda took advocacy to a whole new level in his home state of Georgia. That, alone, distinguishes him from the hordes who were too busy — or scared — to try.

As for Miller, he spent 37 years at the same course, quietly and patiently training dozens of University of Wisconsin-Madison turf student interns (and others) how to step in and fill the ranks of the “working superintendent.” He’s the mentor we all wish we had.

And, speaking as a “working editor” who has to gather all the elements for the feature articles about these guys, one other thing distinguishes them: They never seem to have pictures of themselves — at least, not the kind they deserve. As Miller put it, “I’m always the one taking the pictures.”

One last thing on the subject: This year the name of GCSAA’s founder and first president was added to the official name of the award — Col. John Morley, who won the inaugural DSA in 1932 and won again in 1940. He probably had the exact same, “Who, me?” reaction, but they don’t get much more distinguished than that.