Four transportation leaders will be honored Oct. 8 when the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute holds its annual awards banquet at the Fargo Holiday Inn. Honorees include Steve McCormick Sr., executive vice president of North Improvement Co.; Delta Daggett, long-time leader in the trucking industry and former head of Daggett Truck Line of Frazee, Minn.; David Sprynczynatyk, North Dakota Adjutant General and former North Dakota director of transportation; and Terry Placek, comptroller proponency program manager and chief, Comptroller Proponency Office in the office of the Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Army.
The institute also will award two $1,500 scholarships to civil engineering students. Garrett Brunell, a senior from Elk River, Minn., and Thomas Kading, a senior from Park Rapids, Minn., will receive Transportation Engineering Scholarships. The scholarships recognize academic achievement and promote the education of transportation students at NDSU and are funded by the Mountain-Plains Consortium, an NDSU-led consortium of universities working together under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers Program.
The banquet will begin with a social at 5:15 p.m. and dinner at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are $30 and available from Kathy McCarthy at 1-7767.
McCormick will receive the John M. Agrey Award. The award recognizes and honors an individual who has made significant contributions to the state of North Dakota, its citizens and its business community through involvement in transportation. McCormick is the CEO/chairman of the board and president of McCormick Inc., the holding company that owns Northern Improvement. He earned a bachelor's degree from NDSU and served for two years in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He has served as executive vice president of Northern Improvement since 1987.
Daggett will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognizes an individual who has had a distinguished career in a transportation-related field and who has exhibited long-term professional excellence in the field of transportation. Daggett and brothers Marvin and David all grew up in the trucking business. Their father, Vernon, hauled his first load of cattle across state lines in 1930. The fleet now numbers about 100 trucks. Following graduation from Hamline University at St. Paul, Minn., in 1962, Daggett returned to Frazee to begin his full-time career at Daggett Truck Line.
Sprynczynatyk will receive the Chairman’s Award. The award honors an individual for contributions to transportation research, education and outreach at NDSU, and contributions to the viability of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. The award recognizes Sprynczynatyk’s leadership as chair of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute’s advisory board from 2003-06. Before assuming the duties of the Adjutant General of North Dakota in 2006, Sprynczynatyk was named the North Dakota director of transportation in 2001. He began his career in government in 1972 with the State Water Commission, ultimately becoming the state engineer in 1989. He earned a bachelor's degree from NDSU and graduated from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Penn.
Placek will receive the 2009 Special Achievement Award for Education. The award recognizes her expertise, advice, on-going support and tireless promotion of the transportation and logistics academic programs at NDSU. Placek was instrumental in launching the Master’s of Military Logistics Program (now the Master’s of Managerial Logistics) program at NDSU. Within the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army, she is the comptroller proponency program manager and chief, Comptroller Proponency Office, and is responsible for the career management, education, training and professional development of the Army’s military and civilian financial management professionals.
