MOUNTAIN VIEW — The Arkansas Beef Council wanted to honor the memory of former council chairman Leo Sutterfield, so the council came up with an award in his name.
The first Ridin for the Brand statuette, which is named the Leo Sutterfield Leadership Award, was presented to Linda Sutterfield, Leo’s widow, on Oct. 1.
Leo Sutterfield was chairman of the Beef Council when he died on Sept. 13, 2017.
“We presented it to her because it wasn’t until after Leo passed that we decided that we needed to honor him in some way,” said Travis Justice, executive director of the Arkansas Beef Council. “Leo was a fine man, a fine leader. He was the chairman of our council for nine years. As long as he was on the council, the rest of the council wanted him to be chairman. He willingly accepted it.”
The Sutterfields owned and operated McCallister-Sutterfield Farm in Mountain View. Their farm, established in 1872, is listed as an Arkansas Century Farm.
“It has been in my family since 1872,” Linda Sutterfield said. “Leo had been a part of it since we married in 1968.”
Linda said she was honored to receive the award for her late husband.
“It’s a tremendous honor because Leo would have been so pleased,” she said. “It’s gratifying to see his effort recognized and remembered.”
Their farm, which is also operated by their daughter Edie Sutterfield, is 850 acres with approximately 200 head of cattle, which are raised for beef production. Linda said they have some goats on the farm that are used for brush clearing.
“Leo has always been very interested in agricultural organizations,” Linda said. “He was a banker and an accountant. He was very good with budgets and running meetings, in addition to being a beef producer. I think that’s what rounded out Leo and made him valuable to these organizations.”
Justice lauded the efforts of Leo Sutterfield during his term with the Beef Council.
“He had a national leadership role with the Beef Checkoff Program,” Justice said. “Given all his history and support of that program, the council wanted to recognize him in some way.”
The award, which will be given at the discretion of the Arkansas Beef Council, is for retiring Beef Council board members or others who have contributed to the beef industry in Arkansas.
“It’s to recognize retiring Beef Council members, but we also don’t want to limit it to just the Beef Council members,” Justice said. “There would be other individuals who have been cooperative with the program, lent great support to our program, and we could recognize them, too.”
The Leo Sutterfield Leadership Award will retain the name each time it’s presented, Justice said.
“When we created it, the first one needed to be presented to Mrs. Linda,” Justice said. “The inscription is going to read differently for different people.”
In addition to his work in the beef industry, Leo Sutterfield was previously the president of First Service Bank in Mountain View.
“You look at his resume. … If there is a county group in Stone County, he was on the board or chaired it,” Justice said. “On the state level, he was on the state Farm Bureau Board and several other groups statewide.”
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.