For Recruiter of the Year

Category. Permanent award.

Authority for the Award.

Department Bylaws Chapter VII, Article III, Section A: This award may be presented by the Department Commander to the brother who has recruited the most new brothers (Members, Associates, Junior Members, and Junior Associates) since the previous Department Encampment.  The determination of which brother is to receive credit for a new brother is based upon the name entered on the application for membership as “Recommended by SUVCW Brother.” Applications received from the National Junior Vice Commander-in-Chief are not considered when determining the number of “recruits.” The Department Commander may determine not to present the award any year he feels no one has recruited enough brothers to set him apart in this regard.

History of the Award.

This award was created by Department Commander Dean K. Speaks with Department Order 1 (1996-1997), dated October 1996, as the “Corporal Leonidas B. Davis Award for Recruiter of the Year.”  Corporal Leonidas B. Davis (1833-1903), great-grandfather of Commander Speaks, was a Civil War veteran who served with Company F, 3rd Iowa Volunteer Cavalry.  Davis was wounded in his first engagement at Blue Mills, Missouri. He returned home to Iowa to recover from his wounds and re-enlisted in Co. A, 5th Iowa Cavalry in 1864 and fought to the end of the war.  Davis settled in the Beloit, Kansas, area after the war where he farmed northeast of the town in Plumb Creek township.

The award was made a permanent award of the Department by the Thirteenth Annual Department Encampment in 2008.

In 2012, the Seventeenth Annual Department Encampment changed the name of the award to “Corporal Leonidas B. Davis and PDC Dean K. Speaks Award for Recruiter of the Year” after the untimely death of Brother Speaks in March 2010.  This was to honor Brother Speaks for his accomplishments with the Department of Kansas.

The Twenty-ninth Annual Department Encampment again changed the name of the award in 2025 to specifically honor Brother Speaks and recognize his role in bringing about the original camps to form the Department of Kansas.  The award was officially renamed “PDC Dean K. Speaks Award for Recruiter of the Year.”

Recipients.

Year	Recipent, Camp No.	Awarded By
1997 1998 1999 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2012 2014 2015 2016 2019 2022 2023 2024 2026	Jerry Seery, 1 (Recipent not identified) (Recipent not identified) Jeffrey L. Dunaway, 16 (Recipent not identified) Kenneth R. Spurgeon, 1 Roy A. Lafferty, 4; & Craig A. Sundell, 4 Craig A. Sundell, 4 Randal L. Durbin, 16; & Craig A. Sundell, 4 Corp. Patrick Coyne Camp 1 Franklin C. Bergquist, 1 Robert L. Wandel, 4 Kent M. Melcher, 16 Old Glory Camp 7 William E. Fischer Jr, 9 Otis C. Crawford, 9 William F. Riedell, 1 Lane D. Smith, 5 Dennis L. Lawrence, 4 Joseph E. Chrisman, 10 Conrad M. Fisher, 16 Thomas E. Schmidt, 4	Dean K. Speaks Dean K. Speaks Dean K. Speaks Franklin C. Bergquist Randall M. Thies Alan L. Russ Kenneth R. Spurgeon Thomas E. Schmidt James R. Knopke Randal L. Durbin Roy A. Lafferty Roy A. Lafferty Rocky L. Bartlow Rocky L. Bartlow Kent M. Melcher Michael A. Todd K. Kirk Nystrom Robert D. Boyd II Thomas E. Schmidt Kent M. Melcher