Three livestock professionals were added to the Livestock Marketeers Hall of Fame at the 2010 National Western Stockshow, January 16th in Denver, CO. Honored in 2010 were Gary Kendall, Potlatch, ID; Bruce Brooks, Marietta, OK; and a posthumous award to A.J. Smith, Lone Wolf, OK. The Livestock Marketeers group was established in 1965 by Harry Green, Ross Miller and Claud Willett. The purpose was to form a fraternal organization of livestock professionals and to make annual awards in order to stimulate younger members of the industry to succeed in there chosen profession. Nearly 100 Marketeers were in attendance for 2010, a new record for the group.

Gary Kendall
After graduating with a degree in ag economics from the University of Idaho in 1959, Gary Kendall returned to farm in Potlatch, Idaho, and established a registered Angus herd that bred and produced the 1981 NWSS Grand Champion Female and the 1983 National Junior Angus Show (NJAS) Grand Champion Female.

Kendall’s marketing career may have started at home, but in 1981 he accepted the position of manager of the Spokane National Stockshow in Spokane, Wash. This developed into a sale management business when the Cowman’s Classic All-Breed Bull Sale was started in 1985. He added another industry-leading event to his résumé in 1987, when he began managing the Nugget Hereford Show and Sale in Reno, Nev.

By 1991, Kendall was managing an impressive string of consignment and production sales throughout the western United States, including the Western National Angus Futurity in Reno.

The key to his success, according to C.D. “Butch” Booker, Colfax, Wash., is that “Gary has always believed in taking your best to a sale.” Kendall’s appreciation of quality livestock and the good people who raise them have made him a favorite in the Pacific Northwest beef industry. He was also roasted by 2007 Hall of Fame inductee Willard Wolf, Valleyford, Wash.

The Western Livestock Reporter — now the Western Ag Reporter — offered its Northwestern field representative position to Kendall in 1993, a position he held until his retirement in 2010.

“I appreciate all the people here tonight,” Kendall said during the Livestock Marketeers banquet in Denver. “And all of the people who brought me here.”

He and his fiancée, Linda Hartford, continue to enjoy their involvement in the seedstock industry. Gary has two sons, Rod and Dale Kendall, and a daughter, Leanne Collier, as well as seven grandchildren.