MORRO BAY, CA, September 10, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present John V. Stechman with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. As an accomplished listee, Mr. Stechman celebrates 55 years (1955-2010) of experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievement, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accued in his field, primarily in the State of California. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility and prominence in a profession are all taken into account during the selection process. Mr. Stechman was found to be renowned as a professor, rancher and a certified range management consultant of excellence in his professional fields. Rangeland occupies a majority of the western United States which yields precious water, wildlife, public recreational values, forage for domestic livestock, as well as solar and wind energy generation of electricity.
Mr. Stechman was born in 1934 in Illinois, and at ten years of age his family rented a home on a dairy-hog-corn farm in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, leading him to love agriculture. When his family moved to California, he raised racing pigeons and chickens, and upon graduating from high school, was accepted at Occidental College. Soon after, a move took Mr. Stechman to UC Berkeley after working summers with the US Departments of Agriculture and Agricultural Research Service on new rangeland projects, and reading the first book about rangeland management, authored by Dr. Arthur Sampson In 1948. This led Mr. Stechman to realize that this field was his calling and lead him to the new major at UC Berkeley offered by Dr. Harold Heady in 1954. Summers in the later 1950s were spent working for the US Departments of Agriculture, Forest Service, and Research Service and a transfer to UC Davis where he finished classes for a BS degree in 1956. Mr. Stechman then served in the military in Chicago at the US Army Food and Container Institute doing research on the dehydration of vegetables for stabilization of food value and flavor for light weight ground and space travel until rehydrated for consumption. Upon release from the military in 1958, Mr. Stechman returned to UC Davis to pursue and complete an MS Degree.in Range Management in 1960, shortly after it had been first offered. This same year, he was offered an 'Instructor' position at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo to develop and teach new classes in Rangeland Management, Range Ecology, and Range Technology, and to help teach livestock feeding, soil science, and natural resources management, and help manage hundreds of beefcattle for the Animal Science Department. This continued until retirement as Professor in 1989 and a concentration on his own business of Range Management consulting. In 1963, he gained his first consulting job on 114 thousand acres of grazed watershed, but not certified until 1989 as a consultant in California by the national Society of Range Management in Denver. And, in 1971, he was offered year-round management of a 900 acre, 70 beef cow ranch contiguous to the University, and to buy the herd over time. During the 1980s, John was consultant for two very large ranches, each of about 140 thousand acres, which took 3-4 years to complete mapping and management plans. Of more than 60 smaller private and government properties, many required legal work by Mr. Stechman as an expert witness in such incidences of loss of life, animal and human, in cases involving livestock on highways. These jobs were carried out in the summer, before returning to the University. Nearly 600 thousand acres were actually measured and accounted for in Mr. Stechman's consulting. He retired in 2010 after closing his last contract: "The lady in Boston" who owned a ranch in California, never came out to visit, only corresponded by telephone. Even after receiving a Court Summons from California, she lost a case by being absent, but did retain her ranch.
Moreover, Mr. Stechman is author of "Common Western Range Plants", an illustrated guide book of important grasses, forbs, and poisonous plants and their ecology, published in 1971, and in 1985, the illustrated "History of Land Acquisition and Development for Agricultural Education" which details the growth and development by land purchases for Cal Poly College which rose to 6,200 acres from 1902 to 1984. These documents, plus 63 bound consulting reports from 1965 to 2010 rest on his book shelf. Mr. Stechman was honored as the 1981 "California Range Manager of the Year" by his California Section for his service again as President in 2001, and in 2012, a "Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award" by the national Society for Range Management meeting in Spokane. In 2002, Mr. Stechman was recognized for 10 years of dedication to the San Miguelito Water Company. He has also received a Golden State Award from the Who's Who Historical Society, and awards in trail horsemanship, and in competition at the Paso Robles Mid-State County Fair professional division of water color painting.
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