John C. Gross Named Distinguished Alumnus

John C. Gross, of Madison, and a 1954 graduate of the Dairy Science department will be honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement. The 44th annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner and Program will be held on Friday, 21st October in honor of John and seven other Distinguished Alums.

John graduated from SDSU with a double major in Dairy Production and Animal Husbandry in 1954. By this time he had already developed a strong commitment to the dairy industry. This combined with his leadership skills (he was president of the Student Body at SDSU), loyalty to SDSU, commitment to education and the desire to strive for excellence formed the critical ingredients for pursuing a path of excellence in the profession for the next fifty years.

In the spirit of his belief “Holsteins are the most important part of my life, next to my family….” John’s professional achievements can be demonstrated primarily in his efforts in the breeding and development of the Holstein breed of cows. He accomplished this through his own herd and later as a Holstein Association classifier for 14 years and technical supervisor of classifiers for 2 years. John has been a member of the South Dakota and National Holstein Association for more than 50 years. He served as Vice President of the State Association and as a Director of the National Association. Through these and other activities John has traveled extensively around the world for judging and classifying Holsteins, delivering papers, and marketing embryos and breeding stock. Genetics of a partnership-owned bull have been sold to virtually every country in the world where Holstein cattle exist. His outstanding professional achievements ultimately led to opportunities for service to the state through appointments to the South Dakota Conservation Commission board and the South Dakota Farm Service Agency committee, the latter by the USDA.

He has supported the Dairy and Animal Science judging teams through funding. These judging teams depend on such funding for their activities. The success of these teams has been well recognized nationally. Most importantly, John has funded an Embryo Transfer Program at the Dairy Research and Training Facility at SDSU. This has allowed for the training of students in the area of Embryo Transfer as well as to develop high quality dairy animals in the herd. John was also a past member of the SDSU Foundation board. In addition, Gross is a strong supporter of SDSU athletics and alumni activities.

Gross and his wife, Millie, have two sons, a daughter and nine grandchildren.

South Dakota State University / Dairy Science Department
Dairy Microbiology Rm 109 / Phone: 605-688-4116
College of Agricultural and Biological Sciences