Bruce Hotchkiss receives Miller Award

The Maryland Grain Producers Association (MGPA) awarded its prestigious Dr. James R. Miller award to founding and senior editor of the Delmarva Farmer, Bruce Hotchkiss, at the Maryland Commodity Classic on July 26. Established in 1988, this award recognizes a professional, non-grower for his/her contributions to the grain industry. Mr. Hotchkiss is well known for his fair and unbiased reporting of issues affecting the agriculture industry.

“With the news industry often going to the “hot headline”, you could always count on Bruce to bring out both sides of the story,” stated Charles Schaefer, II, President of MGPA.

Robert Hutchison, a grain and vegetable farmer from Cordova, presented Hotchkiss with a clock at the Classic. Hotchkiss will also have his name engraved on a perpetual plaque housed at the Maryland Department of Agriculture. “His accurate reporting, leadership in the news industry, and support of agriculture is why we honor him today with the Miller award,” stated Hutchison.

“I was absolutely stunned, thrilled and honored,” said Hotchkiss. “I strongly believe in serving my community and all of you are my community. I promise to bring you a paper you deserve and we can be proud of. Thank you all.”

Hotchkiss was born into large farm family in Wisconsin and from the age of 9, raised on a 1,000-acre Guernsey dairy farm in New Jersey in 1937. He attended Lawrenceville School, then Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers to pursue a career in journalism. He rode a horse to graduation in Rutgers Stadium in 1951 and went to work the next day as a cub reporter in Newark, New Jersey.

He edited daily and weekly papers in New Jersey and Colorado before coming to the Eastern Shore as editor of The Star Democrat. As the founding editor of the Central Shore Farmer, he jumped at the chance to turn that small weekly insert into a major agricultural newspaper, The Delmarva Farmer, in 1978. He remains senior editor at American Farm Publications, in addition to running his own family business, Agri-Media Services Inc., which offers help to farmers and farm organizations with their public and media relations and commodity promotion and education programs.

He received Honorary American Farmer Degree from FFA and is an honorary County Ag Agent in Maryland. He has received awards from the Soil Conservation Society of America, Maryland Extension Specialists Association, the University of Maryland Department of Agronomy, the Maryland 4-H Foundation, the Mid-Atlantic and Virginia Soybean Associations, the American Soybean Association and numerous others.

Former Delmarva Farmer editor Mark Powell, now Chief of Marketing and Agricultural Development at Maryland Department of Agriculture, said, "The Delmarva Farmer serves an absolutely necessary role for agriculture and we owe a debt to Bruce Hotchkiss for setting the tone of decency, humanity and respect that has distinguished the paper for those of us who followed in his footsteps." 

Previous winners of the Dr. James R. Miller Award include: