The Wisconsin Dairy Products Association (WDPA), Middleton, Wis., said it honored Tony Anderson with the 2018 WDPA Presidents Award. The award was presented at a special awards dinner on Monday, July 9 at the 2018 Dairy Symposium, held at The Landmark Resort in Egg Harbor, Wis.

Anderson recently retired after working 40 years with Swiss Valley Farms, WDPA said. He started his career in the dairy industry with Mississippi Valley Producers Association, which later became Carnation Dairy. In 1980, the name switched to Swiss Valley Farms, until its recent merger with Prairie Farms.

Anderson began his career working with fluid products and then transitioned into cultured products and, finally, cheese products, WDPA said.

Anderson has been very active with WDPA. He served on the WDPA board of directors from 1999-2017 and was the WDPA president in 2004. He has also served as the chairman of the WDPA Contest Committee since 2006 and has been active on the WDPA Executive and Nominating committees.

In addition, Anderson volunteers for the judging week at the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest and serves as the MC for the annual contest auction. He has also served multiple terms on the Master Cheesemakers board of directors, WDPA noted.

This year's winner was selected by the WDPA board of directors, which received a slate of nominees from the WDPA Presidents Award Advisory Committee, the association said. The nominees were chosen based on their contributions to the Wisconsin dairy industry and to WDPA. 

Past WDPA Presidents Award winners include Mike Dean/1998, Bob Aschebrock/1999, Fran Cobian/2000, Bob Bradley/2001, Don Storhoff/2002, John Galloway/2003, George Cornell/2004, Jim Kasten/2005, Bob Wagner/2006, LaVern Stencil/2007, Gary Steinhauer/2008, Dick Eiting/2009, Deborah VanDyk/2010, Bill Jacoby/2011, Dallas Wuethrich/2012, Joe Weis/2013, Stu Giffin/2014, Rep. Al Ott/2015, Ted Galloway/2016 and Allan VerVoort/2017.