Alan M. Craig Award
Alan and Narca Craig, San Jacinto Wildlife Area, Riverside County, California, 1989.
Photo by Charles Duffy.
In 1987, Western Field Ornithologists instituted the Alan M. Craig Award, to be given on an irregular basis for “exceptional service, leadership and dedication to WFO over a sustained period of time.” The award is named in honor of Alan Craig, a founding member of the WFO and a founding editor of Western Birds (formerly, California Birds). In 1973, when we expanded our range of interest and California Birds became Western Birds, Alan was the journal’s editor. He guided our journal in that role for another fourteen years. Fittingly, in 1987, Alan was the first recipient of the Alan M. Craig Award.
The Craig Award is given to honor leaders who have provided distinguished and meritorious service to the organization over a period of time. In establishing this award, WFO’s board of directors resolved that the award would be granted only on an irregular basis for exceptional service to the organization.
In 1987, Western Field Ornithologists instituted the Alan M. Craig Award, to be given on an irregular basis for “exceptional service, leadership and dedication to WFO over a sustained period of time.” The award is named in honor of Alan Craig, a founding member of the WFO and a founding editor of Western Birds (formerly, California Birds). In 1973, when we expanded our range of interest and California Birds became Western Birds, Alan was the journal’s editor. He guided our journal in that role for another fourteen years. Fittingly, in 1987, Alan was the first recipient of the Alan M. Craig Award.
The Craig Award is given to honor leaders who have provided distinguished and meritorious service to the organization over a period of time. In establishing this award, WFO’s board of directors resolved that the award would be granted only on an irregular basis for exceptional service to the organization.
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Alan M. Craig Award presented to Virginia P. (Ginger) Johnson at the Annual Meeting of Western Field Ornithologists, Palm Desert, California, October 16, 2010. Left: Philip Unitt, Editor of Western Birds; Middle: Virginia Johnson, Graphics Manager, Western Birds, holding certificate (image below); Right: Catherine Waters, President (outgoing), holding Ginger’s gift, a framed print of Sabine’s Gulls in flight, specially created by Andrew Birch, Photo by © Alison Sheehey. |
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In 1987, Western Field Ornithologists instituted the Alan M. Craig Award, to be given "on an irregular basis for exceptional service to the organization." After considerable discussion last year, WFO’s board of directors decided to resurrect this award, and to set about seeking and evaluating nominees.
Ultimately there was little question of whose service has been so exceptional as to deserve the award: Virginia (Ginger) P. Johnson, who has served WFO continuously throughout its existence.
Since 1970, when she was one of the founding members of the organization and one of the founding editors of California Birds, Ginger has volunteered her time to produce our journal. Her sketch of a Sabine's Gull provides the logo that has identified us since the outset.
Before the advent of the computer age Ginger painstakingly assembled each issue by hand, cutting the typeset copy and arranging it into pages for the printer. After this task became electronic, she continued working on other basic steps of quality control in production of a journal, checking the work of the typesetter to ensure all corrections are made properly and all the illustrations are in place. Every issue of Western Birds bears the stamp of Ginger's high standards. As we publish ever more color photographs, the importance of another of her roles looms ever larger. In the process of printing, eight pages are still printed on a single large sheet, which is folded and cut into what printers call a signature. WFO pays for color in the journal on the basis of the signature, so we maximize the bang for our buck when we distribute the maximum number of color photos onto the minimum possible number of signatures. For each issue with color photos, Ginger finds this minimum and directs the photos' placement, often reordering the articles, in a process equivalent to solving a complex puzzle, requiring balance, ingenuity, and good judgment. By ensuring we maximize our efficiency, Ginger has saved WFO thousands of dollars over the years. Ginger's work has contributed substantially to Western Birds' improvement and WFO's financial health at a time when the economy is sagging and many organizations and publications are struggling.
Besides her work on Western Birds, Ginger is an experienced bird bander and monitor of colonies of the Least Tern in San Diego. She participated in the San Diego County bird atlas and enjoys birding both locally around San Diego and farther afield around the world.
Ginger's work has been quiet and behind the scenes, but every member of WFO and every reader of Western Birds benefits from her diligence and dedication. In a span of 40 years each of us must face crises, and Ginger has been no exception. Yet through all the ups and downs she has kept working on our behalf on every issue of the journal published since its inception in 1970. Such steadfast dedication to WFO's mission merits recognition with the Alan M. Craig award and inspires our heartfelt thanks.
On June 13, 2015 WFO presented the Alan M. Craig Award to Guy McCaskie, at our annual conference in Billings, Montana
President Dave Quady (“17”) presents the Alan M. Craig award to Guy McCaskie (“1”). Photo by Raymond VanBuskirk.
Guy was one of the six founders of California Field Ornithologists (CFO), which later became Western Field Ornithologists. He was also one of the founding editors of California Birds, and the author or co-author of a paper in each of its first six issues. He served for two years as the first President of CFO, and served as a director of CFO and WFO for several subsequent years.
Guy was also a founder of the California Bird Records Committee. He served the CBRC continuously in one capacity or another from 1970 through 2014, except when term limits required him to step aside for a year. Perhaps most significantly he served as the committee’s non-voting secretary continuously for fourteen years before stepping down in January 2015. He was re-elected a member of the California Bird Records Committee in January 2016.
Tim Manolis receives the Alan M. Craig Award at WFO’s 2016 annual conference in Fortuna, California
Tim was a charter member of California Field Ornithologists, and was recognized as one of the many members of the Editorial Board of Western Birds beginning in 1973. Tim became an Associate Editor of Western Birds in 1984, and served in that capacity for 26 years straight, not stepping down until 2010. No one before or since has approached that many years of such service to Western Birds. Along the way he also served Western Field Ornithologists as a Director (1983-early 1985), Vice President (later in 1985), and Acting President (1986), and as WFO’s sixth President (1987–late 1989).
WFO President Dave Quady presents to Alan M. Craig award recipient Tim Manolis a framed print
of Andy Birch’s Sabine’s Gull watercolor painting. Photo by © Ron LeValley
In 1987, Western Field Ornithologists instituted the Alan M. Craig Award, to be given “on an irregular basis for exceptional service to the organization.” The award’s name honors an individual who was both a founding member of the organization and a founding editor of California Birds. In 1973, when the organization expanded its range of interest and California Birds became Western Birds, Alan became the journal’s editor. He guided the publication in that role for another fourteen years. Fittingly, Alan was the first recipient of the Alan M. Craig Award, in 1987. Virginia (Ginger) P. Johnson was the second recipient, in 2010, and Guy McCaskie was the third, in 2015.
All three previous recipients of the Craig Award were present in Fortuna to honor Tim as its fourth recipient.
WFO recognizes Catherine Pannell Waters with the Alan M. Craig Award
For her many years of volunteer effort on behalf of Western Field Ornithologists and field ornithology in the west.
Catherine Pannell Waters receives the Alan M. Craig Award at the Pueblo, Colorado conference, 2017
Every successful volunteer-based organization has at least one person who serves as the spark plug that makes it run. Catherine Pannell Waters (Cat) has filled that role for Western Field Ornithologists for nearly two decades. Her dedication to our organization seems to be without limit. Virtually from the beginning of her involvement, she has brought an incredible level of energy and willingness to take on any job that needs to be done, and she does it with enthusiasm and good humor. For the sheer breadth of her contributions and her depth of commitment to the organization, she is probably unmatched.
Cat was first elected to the WFO Board of Directors in 2002, and she has served on the Board, or in very close association with its activities, ever since. She served as our President from 2008 (elected at the San Mateo, CA meeting) until 2011. Cat took primary responsibility for organizing the Annual Meeting in Costa Mesa/Irvine, Orange County, CA in 2002, and she has played a large role in every subsequent meeting. Her work has included helping to find wonderful meeting locations, working with local committees, and aiding with receptions, banquets, and other meeting events such as the silent auction, far beyond the call of duty. She was instrumental in establishing our very useful meeting evaluation process.
Cat has taken an especially strong interest in our publications. She had long served on the Publications Committee (2003) and as its Chair or Co-Chair since 2011. Among many other roles, she has been indefatigable in leading us into the new world of digital publication. This involved a steep learning curve and she has spent hundreds of hours mastering the relevant details and making the necessary connections within the rapidly evolving world of e-publishing. Much of this she did when she took on the task of producing an on-line version of Rare Birds of California, a job made much more difficult because the book was originally prepared for hard-copy publication only. What she learned during that arduous process continues to benefit us in all of our subsequent publication endeavors that have resulted in our ability to provide on-line access to Western Birds, and her recently completed project to put the brief run of the journal, The Euphonia, on-line. Cat has not worked alone on these initiatives, but it is fair to say that without her, we would not be where we are today. Now, months after being honored with the Alan M. Craig award, she continues to spend countless hours as we move forward with the nearly simultaneous publication of two monographs.
Cat has always recognized that our members are what makes our organization special, and she was doing outreach for WFO before anyone else thought much about it. It is easy to get the impression that she knows every WFO member personally. Since at least 2004, she has written an informal newsletter for members to be distributed with issues of Western Birds. Her knack for bringing bright and dedicated new people into the WFO orb may well be her most lasting legacy.
In her “spare time,” Cat has been closely involved with our scholarships and grants and has been instrumental in raising funds for those efforts. On her own, she took on the task of organizing, protecting and making available the WFO archives.
As a member of the Finance Committee for many years, she sought to insure the solvency and prosperity of WFO. With rare talent and enthusiasm, she has made a direct contribution through many years of dedicated fund-raising for our projects.
Cat Waters is the fifth recipient of the Alan M. Craig Award.
OTHER HONORS
Pierre Devillers and Jean Terschuren
In 2015 Western Field Ornithologists’ Board of Directors honored two other individuals with special certificates: Pierre Devillers and Jean Terschuren. Like Alan Craig, Ginger Johnson, and Guy McCaskie, Pierre and Jean were also founders of the organization and co-editors of California Birds during its first two years of publication, and each contributed significant papers to the journal during that period. Pierre’s and Jean’s active involvement in Western Field Ornithologists ended during the organization’s early years, when they moved to Belgium, Pierre’s home country. Happily, both of them attended our annual conference in San Diego in 2014, where they were able to share in celebrating WFO’s founding, and its history. The Board created and sent special commemorative certificates to Pierre and Jean in August 2015.
Guy McCaskie (left) visits with Pierre Devillers and Jean Terschuren in San Diego, October 11, 2014. Photo by Ed Pandolfino.