Agriculture director honored with Honorary Hoosier Degree

INDIANAPOLIS — Besides honoring Indiana FFA members for their hard work and accomplishments during the past year, five friends of the agriculture industry were also recognized with the Honorary Hoosier Degree during the 92nd Indiana FFA State Convention.

According to the Indiana FFA website, https://inffa.org/page.aspx?ID=2376, the Honorary Hoosier Degree is given to recognize those individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to not only Indiana agriculture, but also in Indiana agriculture education of the Indiana FFA.

One of the individuals who earned this high honor is Bruce Kettler, who serves as the Indiana State Department of Agriculture director and has a true passion for agriculture, especially for vocational agriculture programs.

When introducing him for the award, the 2020-2021 Indiana FFA State Officer Team said Kettler was a supporter, advocate and leader who has dedicated his life to serving agriculture.

Besides Kettler, four other individuals were bestowed with their Honorary Hoosier Degree:

• Gwen Mize, who has served as an agriculture educator at Manchester School from 1991 and is still impacting the minds of future agriculture leaders to this day.

• Joseph Ramey, who has been the director of the Indiana FFA Leadership Center since 2018.

• Donald Sheldon has been involved in the agriculture industry for several years and is currently the agriculture educator at Cloverdale High School, where he has been since 2017.

• David Taylor has been the agriculture educator at South Spencer High School since 1998.