4/24/2007 10:31:00 AM Ethanol producers challenged to contribute to scholarship fund
Special to the Daily News
A former member of the Northeast Community College Board of Governors has challenged ethanol producers in the state to donate funds for students enrolled in ethanol training.
J. Paul McIntosh of Norfolk has challenged members of the Nebraska Ethanol Producers to raise at least $100,000 for a permanent scholarship endowment for students enrolled in the new ethanol training program at Northeast College.
McIntosh pledged to contribute $50,000 if the Nebraska producers raise a minimum of $100,000 in honor of the late Gary Kuester of Stanton, a pioneer in the ethanol industry. Kuester, 61, died last December.
McIntosh's challenge was issued at a recent reception hosted by the Nebraska Ethanol Producers.
McIntosh said a truly free society, with a sense of spiritual and moral responsibility, creates a climate for progress. He also said the entrepreneur has been the catalyst for almost all of that progress.
"We have progressed more in the last 100 years than in the preceding 100,000 years, all because of a bunch of dreamers, entrepreneurs and risk-takers," he said.
McIntosh said Kuester "was one of those risk-taking ethanol missionaries."
"He put up with a lot of criticism and skepticism, but like hundreds before him, Gary never wavered," McIntosh said. "Nothing is done single-handedly, of course, but it is probably safe to say that Husker Ag of Plainview would not have happened without Gary Kuester."
Kuester was one of the original board members of the Husker Ag ethanol plant.
McIntosh said that because of the success of Husker Ag and other pioneering plants, "a lot more ethanol plants are going up, and Northeast Community College is heading up an ethanol-training program for Nebraska."
After McIntosh's remarks, Husker Ag - and general manager Seth Harder - answered McIntosh's challenge with a donation of $50,000. Harder, a Laurel native, is a graduate of Northeast Community College.
Northeast's ethanol training will include a dual-credit program for high school students, a two-year associate of applied science degree for ethanol production and management (which could be applied to a bachelor's degree from a four-year college) and several short-term training courses for current ethanol employees.
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Want to learn more?
Contact Angie McLean, Northeast College director of development, at 844-7056 for further details on the Gary Kuester Memorial Scholarship.
