American Poultry History Society Inducts Four to Hall of Fame
APA Leader, Veterinarian, Professor, and Businessman Honored
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The American Poultry History Society inducted four poultry leaders into its Hall of Fame at the January 2025 International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta. No more than five new members are inducted every three years. This group brings the total to 112 Canadian and U.S. poultry leaders in the Hall of Fame.
“All of our inductees today embody that spirit of dedication to the Whole Chicken as well as their commitment to the future generations through mentoring and education,” said Dr. Michelle (Mickey) Hall, professor emerita, Clemson University, and secretary of the APHS.
To encourage young individuals to appreciate the significance of the leaders who came before them, these biographies were added to the National 4-H Avian Bowl Manual. Questions are included in the annual national competition in Louisville, Kentucky. US Poultry, the Midwest Poultry Federation, poultry companies, and individuals support the Avian Bowl.
Induction Ceremony
APA president Norma Padgett nominated Dave Anderson. Dr. Francine Bradley nominated Dr. Walter Hughes; Kevin Kuhl nominated his father, Henry Kuhl; and Dr. Dianna Bourassa nominated Dr. Ed Moran.
“I believe all of our inductees today embody the spirit not only of veterinary medicine but the required expertise of the Whole Chicken, as well as their commitment to the future generations through mentoring and education,” Dr. Hall said.
Lifelong Poultry Dedication
Dave Anderson Inductee
Dave Anderson is a lifelong poultry keeper/exhibitor and two-times former APA president. He was an aerospace engineer and successful businessman who owned and managed a management and marketing consultant agency for 30 years.
He is credited with guiding the APA through multiple challenging times over the years. In the 1960s, the APA was in serious decline with fewer than 300 members and a negative financial position. Mr. Anderson worked with a handful of members to remove the existing officers and replace them with true businessmen who successfully rescued the organization.
“For some reason, I felt like the APA was very important to me,” he said. “I guess it was because of my experiences as a youth and my close relationship with my grandfather in those days.”
The organization hit hard times again in the early 2000s and Mr. Anderson ran for and was elected president in 2006 with the intent to stabilize the APA once again. He served for four years and attained his goal, leaving office with a healthy organization, both in membership and financially. He continued on as a board member for the next four years, followed by another two-year stint as president and two more years on the board.
The APA recently celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2023, as a strong, stable organization with over 4,000 members and a solid financial position.
Mr. Anderson was inducted into the California Poultry Hall of Fame and the APA Hall of Fame in 2006. He has appeared as an expert witness in several trials regarding poultry matters and also spoke before the California state legislature on behalf of the poultry exhibition industry. He is an experienced poultry show superintendent and licensed poultry judge and has officiated at poultry shows throughout the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, and Mexico.
“Those endorsing Dave’s candidacy for this award spoke of his passion, and willingness to serve and share his knowledge with all,” said Dr. Hall.
Historically, the APHS Hall of Fame has honored poultry leaders from the industry and from academia. APHS Secretary Hall encouraged the APA to submit a candidate. When she informed Mr. Anderson that he had been nominated, he thought it was an industry award.
“As a specialist with small flocks and one who suffers from OCD (Obsessive Chicken Disorder) I assured him that without the genetics and awareness of the fanciers, there probably would be no poultry industry,” Dr. Hall said.
Mr. Anderson joins John Skinner (1989) and Lou Arrington (2013) in representing the exhibition and Standardbred side in the Hall of Fame.
The interests of the industrial world and the academic, which overwhelmingly serves the industry, don’t often overlap. While both involve poultry, the industrial world relies on patented genetics and raising birds by the millions. The exhibition world focuses on the perfection of standard breeds through normal biological breeding and raising birds in small flocks.
Dr. Walter Hughes Inductee
Dr. Walter Hughes intended to become a veterinarian, but those plans made an abrupt turn after the Japanese bombed Ellwood on California’s Gaviota coast near the Hughes’ Santa Barbara farm in 1942. He and his two brothers signed up to serve. As an Air Force B-24 pilot, he completed 35 flying missions over Germany. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal and a Purple Heart for his service.
He returned to finish his education at the University of California at Davis, a member of the school’s first class in veterinary medicine.
Dr. Hughes began as a general practice vet, but his career developed into poultry specialization. He moved to Petaluma in Northern California to work in the poultry clinic there. From there, Kimber Farms recruited him as veterinary lab director.
Later, his poultry work in California advanced the poultry industry with regard to bird health and producer profitability. He introduced the “all in, all out” system of poultry husbandry in the commercial poultry industry. He developed the first state-licensed Marek’s vaccine. His protocol for raising specific pathogen-free flocks is used to produce vaccines for animals as well as humans.
Dr. Hughes earned the title “Crazy Chicken Doctor” for being the first to describe Avian Hysteria, or spontaneous flight.
He once said, “I believe my most useful work was not specifically veterinary medicine, but the required expertise of the Whole Chicken.”
Far from being a crazy chicken doctor, Dr. Hughes was an American war hero who went on to advance the poultry industry.
Henry Kuhl Inductee
Henry Kuhl built a company around his name, which is a staple of quality and reliability in the poultry industry.
His first innovation was a coal-fired brooder, suitable for raising chicks in remote settings that lacked electricity. He developed the first commercial egg washer, for which he received the first of 20 patents he would eventually hold. His efforts to expand cleaning and sanitation in the egg and poultry industry led to collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry.
He supported research and education through his service to US Poultry, National Chicken Council, and as an International Egg Commission delegate. The Kuhl Corporation is one of the longest-tenured exhibitors at IPPE, — more than 66 years. That support contributes to the $35 million that goes toward research to improve the industry.
The Kuhl Corporation has remained a strong, thriving, family-owned enterprise for over 115 years, with four generations of dedicated family leadership. His sons Kevin and Jeffrey attended the induction ceremony.
Mr. Kuhl’s contributions are in three areas: as an icon as a supplier to the poultry industry; as a visionary developing and advancing the poultry industry; and as a leader and supporter of the poultry industry, the ethic woven into the Kuhl Corporation’s values.
Dr. Ed Moran Inductee
Dr. Ed Moran was a “professor’s professor” who encouraged and advised students and faculty in research, teaching, and Extension. He’s been known to his students as a man of inspiring scientific principles, which they pay forward today.
He published more than 200 refereed journal articles during his 48-year career at the University of Guelph in Ontario and Auburn University in Alabama. He contributed to the basic understanding of nutrition in the commercial poultry industry. The data he generated led to the U.S. and Canadian dietary guidelines. His work addressed basic nutritional research and principles of chick/poult development, carcass quality, food safety, immunity, and meat yield. His work emphasized looking at the Whole Bird: the relationships between nutrition and genetics, breeder hen age, incubation, and gastrointestinal development.
About 30 students attended the induction ceremony. Dr. Bourassa was overcome by emotion as she accepted the award on his behalf.
IPPE
The induction ceremony was held during the IPPE in Atlanta. Sponsored by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, American Feed Industry Association and the Meat Institute, IPPE is the world’s largest annual poultry and egg, meat, and animal food industry event of its kind. The expo welcomed 31,000 poultry and egg, meat and feed industry attendees from all over the world. Exhibits of 1,386 exhibitors covered 598,473 square feet, more than 500 acres, in three buildings.
An expo photographer said that his Fitbit had recorded more than 11,000 steps before noon. He was catching his breath after taking photographs of Tyler Harper, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Agriculture, who visited the expo.
APA Leads Poultry Exhibition
The American Poultry Association and the American Bantam Association are the primary national poultry exhibition organizations. Their goal is improvement in domestic fowl and advocating for purebred poultry. They publish Standards of Perfection, against which poultry breeders and judges compare their birds.
The APA includes waterfowl, turkeys, guineafowl, and both large chickens and bantams. Local clubs affiliate with the APA and sponsor local shows. Specialty breed organizations hold competition meets for their breed within the shows.
The APA provides support and education for experienced breeders and a pathway into Standard-bred exhibition poultry for interested novices. Its Youth Education Program encourages young people to get involved. The APA is the umbrella organization under which poultry exhibitions are held. The organization tracks Exhibitor Points to recognize successful exhibitors.
“Some of my early mentors, Dr. McGibbon and John Skinner, said it’s the duty of the fancier to make it practical and the practical to make it fancy,” said Dr. Hall. “It was my honor on behalf of the APHS to induct Mr. Dave Anderson into the 2025 Poultry Hall of Fame.”
Christine Heinrichs writes from her home on California’s Central Coast. She keeps a backyard flock of about a dozen hens, large fowl, and bantams of various breeds.
Her books, How to Raise Chickens, How to Raise Poultry, and the Backyard Field Guide to Chickens are available in bookstores, in Tractor Supply stores, and online at the American Poultry Association store. She has a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Oregon and belongs to several professional journalism and poultry organizations. Her work has been recognized with many awards over her 40-year career.
Originally published in the June/July 2025 issue of Backyard Poultry and regularly vetted for accuracy.
