Congratulations go out to LaVern Stencil for receiving the 2007 Wisconsin Dairy Products Association President’s Award. Stencil will be honored at a special awards dinner on Sunday, July 15 at the 2007 Dairy Symposium at The Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, WI.
Stencil has spent his entire 45 year career at Marathon Cheese Corporation. He began working at Marathon Cheese in 1961 in production. Over the years, he held the following positions at the company: Production Supervisor, Procurement, Purchasing, R&D, Vice President Scheduling, Vice President Sales, Vice President Sales and Marketing and Executive Vice President Marketing and Sales. Since 1997, Stencil has been President of the company.
Stencil has been an integral part of the success and growth of Marathon Cheese during the past 45 years. Currently, the company has two packaging operations in Wisconsin (Marathon and Medford), one in Booneville, Mississippi and one in Mountain Home, Idaho, making Marathon Cheese the largest custom cheese packager in the United States.
Stencil is a member of the Wisconsin Dairy Products Association’s board of directors, and also serves on the boards of the National Cheese Institute, the Dairy State Academy and Marathon County United Way.
This year’s winner was selected by the WDPA Board of Directors after they received a slate of nominees from the WDPA Presidents Advisory Committee. The nominees were chosen based on their contributions to the Wisconsin dairy industry and to the Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn. Past WDPA President Award winners were Mike Dean (1998), Bob Aschebrock (1999), Fran Cobian (2000), Bob Bradley (2001) Don Storhoff (2002), John Galloway (2003), George Cornell (2004), Jim Kasten (2005) and Bob Wagner (2006).