At the 1976 Chapter meeting, the membership passed a motion to present an annual award to an outstanding fishery worker. The “Fishery Worker of the Year Award” was first presented at the annual meeting in 1977. In 1980, the award was renamed the “Award of Excellence” to be awarded to “an individual who has made significant contributions in the fishery-aquatic resource field.” For many years, the “Award of Excellence” Committee was in charge of the award. In 1991, the “Awards Committee” began administering it.

Year	Award Recipient	Agency
1976 – 1977	Fred Eiserman	Wyoming Game and Fish Department
1977 – 1978	Dick Klein	Colorado Division of Wildlife
1978 – 1979	Niles Allen Binns	Wyoming Game and Fish Department
1979 – 1980	Robert J. Behnke	Colorado State University
1980 – 1981	George Baxter	University of Wyoming
1981 – 1982	Bob Wiley	Wyoming Game and Fish Department
1982 – 1983	Patrick Davies	Colorado Division of Wildlife
1983 – 1984	Clair Stalnaker	USFWS, Fort Collins, CO
1984 – 1985	Barry Nehring	Colorado Division of Wildlife
1985 – 1986	Bruce Smith	Wyoming
1986 – 1987	Jon Erickson	Wyoming Game and Fish Department
1987 – 1988	Not awarded
1988 – 1989	Eric Bergersen	Colorado State University
1989 – 1990	Ben Roman	Wyoming Game and Fish Department
1990 – 1991	Not awarded
1991 – 1992	Stephen A Flickinger	Colorado State University
1992 – 1993	Bruce Rosenlund	USFWS
1993 – 1994	Dick Baldes	USFWS, Wyoming
1994 – 1995	Not awarded
1995 – 1996	Not awarded
1996 – 1997	Not awarded
1997 – 1998	Dave Langlois	Colorado Division of Wildlife
1998 – 1999	Wayne Hubert
1999 – 2000	Charlie Bennett	Colorado Division of Wildlife
2000 – 2001	David Dufek	Wyoming Game and Fish Department
2001 - 2002 2002 - 2003 2002 - 2003	Ron Remmick Patrick J. Martinez	Wyoming Game and Fish Department Wyoming Game and Fish Department Colorado Division of Wildlife
2003 - 2004	Thomas P. Nesler	Colorado Division of Wildlife
2004 - 2005	Dr. John Woodling	Colorado Division of Wildlife

Award Recipient