Glen Fisher was selected as the 2017 winner of the American Sheep Industry (ASI) Association Wool Roundtable’s Wool Excellence Award and will be honored at the ASI Annual Convention in Denver.

The former ASI President (2009-10) didn’t know a thing about sheep before meeting and eventually marrying Linda McBride at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He gave up his economist job soon thereafter and moved Linda back to her family’s ranch near Sonora, Texas, and thus his education in the sheep industry began. Fisher took over management of the Sonora Wool and Mohair Company and spent the next 16 years balancing a town job with ranch life.

“It was one of the largest wool warehouses in the U.S. at the time,” Fisher recalled. “I’ve been a strong proponent of wool ever since my time there at the warehouse. In 1993 or 1994, I came back to the ranch full time and I’ve been ranching ever since. The only other job I’ve had in that time was a series of free jobs in the sheep industry.”

Those “free” jobs included serving as secretary/treasurer, vice president and president for ASI, leading ASI’s Wool Council and serving on the Wool Roundtable. Fisher was also president of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association and still serves on the boards of the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center and the Sheep Heritage Foundation. Also still a member of the Wool Roundtable, he abstained from the vote when members nominated him for the Wool Excellence Award.