1950s

Byron Bayers ’52, Twin Bridges, was inducted into the American Hereford Association’s Hereford Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo., in October. The annual ceremony honors breeders who have dynamically influenced the direction and advancement of the Hereford cattle breed. After serving in the U.S. Air Force upon his graduation from UM, Bayers returned to southwest Montana in 1955 to run the Bayers Hereford Ranch, which owns the oldest continuously running Hereford herd in the state. He served as president of the Montana Hereford Association in 1958, 1960 and 1970, and was elected president of AHA in 1976. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he judged almost every major Hereford show in the U.S. Bayers received the UM Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1976 and was inducted into the Montana State Fair Pioneer Hall of Fame in 1981. In 2008, he received the Canadian Ambassador Award from the Canadian Hereford Association.

Norma Ashby ’57, Great Falls, received the 2017 Josephine Trigg Award from the C.M. Russell Museum in honor of her achievements in broadcasting, writing and advocacy for Western art. In 1969, working through the Great Falls Advertising Federation, Ashby originated and co-founded the auction to benefit what was then the C.M. Russell Gallery. Nearly a half century later, that tradition continues with the C.M. Russell Museum’s production of “The Russell: An Exhibition and Sale to Benefit the C.M. Russell Museum.”

Ephraim Hackett ’57, Albany, Ore., is a retired school band director and current conductor of the New Horizons Band in Corvallis, Ore. In October, his family, friends, former students and colleagues put on a public concert in honor of his 82nd birthday.