
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990                   TAG: 9004250166
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY '90                    PAGE: VT12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

HUDDLESTON TAKES EXTENSION HONOR

Few individuals have had a greater impact on Northern Virginia and received less public recognition than John Huddleston.

Virginia Tech makes up for some of that lack of recognition during its annual Founders Day program when it presents the northern Extension District leader with the Alumni Association Award for Extension Excellence. The award consists of $1,000 and a plaque.

Huddleston was recognized for the impact his ideas and leadership have had on the northern part of the state during the decade he has been providing the leadership for Virginia Cooperative Extension.

During the decade, the 49-year-old Bedford County native has given leadership to an impressive list of projects that includes:

Development of the $10 million-Northern Virginia 4-H Educational Center at Front Royal, a facility that hosts nearly 100,000 young people and adults for a variety of activities each year.

Beginning the Outstanding Virginian Day program, an effort that each year pays tribute to a Virginian who perpetuates the principles of good leadership. Recipients have included Sen. Harry S. Bird, Sen. Charles Robb and Del. Dorothy S. McDiarmid.

Working with local governments to enact memorandums of understanding between them and Extension that has resulted in local funding increasing from $1.6 million on 1980 to $3.2 million last year.

Providing leadership and obtaining funding for the development of the Bilingual Program in Arlington to help foreign nationals, primarily Southeast Asians and Hispanics, adapt to living in the United States.

Providing the administrative leadership to the development of an aggressive educational program to promote good agricultural practices that lessen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Giving leadership to the establishment of a comprehensive gypsy moth program to try and control this danger to the state's forests and individual trees.

Giving leadership to a work program for young people in trouble with the law in Caroline County so that the youth can provide public service rather and avoid a police record.

A 1963 graduate of Virginia Tech in agronomy, Huddleston also holds a master's degree in agricultural economics from Tech. He received a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University.

by CNB