Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) Past President Stephen G. Cadenelli, CGCS, and turfgrass pathologists Bruce Clarke, Ph.D., and S. Bruce Martin, Ph.D., have been selected as recipients of the 2014 GCSAA Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Awards.
They will be acknowledged at the 2014 Golf Industry Show Golf in Orlando on Wednesday, Feb. 5, during the Opening Session, presented in partnership with Syngenta, at the Orange County Convention Center.
“These three gentlemen embody what the Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award represents: making enduring legacies to the industry,” GCSAA President Patrick R. Finlen, CGCS, said. “They have made significant contributions to the game of golf and the golf course superintendent profession.”
Cadenelli, a 41-year member of GCSAA, retired in 2013 after a career spent exclusively in the Northeast. He served as golf course superintendent at Country Club of New Canaan (Conn.) and Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson, N.J., and retired from Cape Cod National Golf Club in Brewster, Mass. In addition to his board service and time on national committees with GCSAA, he has been a member of the GCSA of New Jersey, the Metropolitan GCSA, the Connecticut Association of GCS and the GCSA of Cape Cod. While at Metedeconk, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Robert Trent Jones Invitational, which, in its two decades, has raised more than $500,000 to benefit GCSAA’s philanthropic organization, the Environmental Institute for Golf, and the GCSA of New Jersey.
Clarke is chairman of the department of plant biology and pathology and director of the Center for Turfgrass Science at Rutgers University. He has been a part of the Rutgers faculty since 1982. As an educator member, as well as an instructor for GCSAA education, Clarke has long been a supporter of the golf course superintendent. His studies on anthracnose, gray leaf spot and patch diseases associated with cool-season turfgrasses have directly led to new management strategies and a reduction in inputs by superintendents. In 2011, he was given the Award of Merit from the American Phytopathological Society and is a fellow of the APS. Clarke has also been elected a fellow of both the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America.
In his 26 years at Clemson University, Martin has developed a reputation as one of the leading applied turfgrass pathologists in the world. His work as a professor in the department of entomology, soils, and plant sciences in the plant pathology and physiology division has focused largely on the development of fungicides and nematicides. He has worked closely with the Carolinas GCSA for more than two decades and was honored with the chapter’s Distinguished Service Award in 2010. An instructor and educator member of GCSAA since 2003, he is a frequent presenter at turf events throughout the Southeast. In 2010, the Clemson Alumni Association bestowed on Martin its Alumni Distinguished Cooperative Extension Public Service Award. He was named Outstanding Plant Pathologist by the American Phytopathological Society in 2005.
The GCSAA Board of Directors selects the winners from nominations submitted by affiliated chapters and/or association members. The award is given to individuals who have made an outstanding, substantive and enduring contribution to the advancement of the golf course superintendent profession. The award was renamed in 2009 in honor of Col. John Morley, GCSAA’s founder and first president. He was the first to earn the Distinguished Service Award, and received it again in 1940.