The American Society of Irrigation Consultants, Royal Oak, Michigan, presented a number of awards to professional irrigators during the 2022 ASIC National Conference held April 26 in New Orleans. The 2022 ASIC award recipients included Rick Reinders and Chip Carlson of Watertronics LLC, Sue York of Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply and Daniel Hilderbrand of Dura Plastics.
Reinders and Carlson, co-owners and officers of Watertronics LLC, Hartland, Wisconsin, were both been selected as recipients of ASIC’s Roy Williams Memorial Award. Roy Williams was one of the founding members of ASIC and an award is given in his name to recognize significant contributions to the irrigation industry.
Reinders and Carlson started as childhood friends and then started working together at Reinders Irrigation, the parent company of Watertronics. Building smaller pump stations for golf course and landscape applications for their Midwest regional market, Reinders and Carlson, along with Reinders’ father, Richard Reinders Sr., saw an opportunity to fill a market need and established Watertronics in 1987.
For the next 20 years, Watertronics developed as a provider of golf course and landscape pumping solutions, completing projects all over the world. In 2008, Watertronics was purchased by Lindsay Corporation, and Reinders and Carlson both continued in leadership roles of the newly acquired company. In 2018, Reinders and Carlson repurchased Watertronics back from Lindsay, where they are partners in running all aspects of the business operations.
Together, they have developed a strong company culture of saying “yes” to challenges. It is this cooperative and innovative spirit that has earned them the Roy Williams Award.
York, a chairman at Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply, Phoenix, was selected as the recipient of ASIC’s Ivy Munion Langendorff Women in Irrigation Award. The award is given in recognition of women who positively impacted and made a difference in the irrigation industry.
It was due to York’s work as Ewing’s chairman that Ewing grew from two locations in Northern California in 1963 to more than 115 locations in 2001, when her sons Douglas York and Richard York were appointed president and executive vice president, establishing a third generation of family leadership. York’s family legacy continues, with the fourth generation of the family now part of Ewing.
It was York’s focus and commitment to keeping Ewing on the cutting edge of computer systems technology that helped thrust Ewing into an evolutionary phase of growth and progress as a full-line irrigation supply distributor.
Hilderbrand, national specifications manager at Dura Plastics, Beaumont, California, was selected as the recipient of ASIC’s Sam Tobey Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is given annually to a person or persons whose support of ASIC’s principles and goals are deserving of special recognition.
Hilderbrand first became acquainted with ASIC in 1996 when he attended his first ASIC National Conference. He has attended every ASIC National or Regional Conference, except one, since 1996.
Each year, he brings his professionalism and product knowledge to share with the other attendees. He has personally reached out to several irrigation consultants who were not currently ASIC members and encouraged them to attend a conference or to join as a professional member.
Read more about ASIC.
