NAA 50th ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION in GRAND RAPIDS

July 28, 1999 — For Immediate Release

Overland Park, Kan. — The names of three new members now grace the National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame.

Three men — Robert Steffes, CAI, GPPA of Fargo, N.D.; T. Joseph Tarpley, CAI of Rome, Ga.; and Ralph Zettlemoyer of Fogelsville, Pa., received the auction industry’s top honor July 24 during the culminating event of the National Auctioneers Association’s (NAA) 50th Anniversary Convention in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The three men were inducted to the Hall of Fame during the President’s Banquet of the association’s convention. Names of the Hall of Famers are a secret until they are announced, and all three 1999 inductees said they had no idea such an honor would be bestowed upon them.

Plaques with the three inductees’ images will be added to the Hall of Fame wall at NAA Headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., a suburb in the Kansas City, Mo., metropolitan area.

Robert Steffes, CAI, GPPA, of Fargo, N.D., is a life member of the NAA. He served as the association’s president in 1991-92. He was the 1966 North Dakota Champion Auctioneer, the 1972 Champion of Champions Auctioneer and the 1972 World Champion Livestock Auctioneer. In 1992 he was awarded the North Dakota National Leadership Award of Excellence. He has been an auctioneer since 1960 and is chairman of the board of Steffes Auctioneers Inc., a family business in Fargo. The company conducts farm auctions, real estate auctions and business liquidations, as well as general auctions throughout the regions. Steffes also auctioned livestock throughout his career as a market and purebred livestock auctioneer.

T. Joseph Tarpley, CAI, of Rome, Ga., is a life member of the NAA. He is president of J.L. Todd Auction Company. Other business positions include vice president, Todd Advertising Agency, Inc.; president, J.L. Todd Auction Company of Alabama, Inc.; and vice president, J.L. Todd Company. He is a past president of the National Auctioneers Foundation and a past director of the National Auctioneers Association. He was the 1991 Georgia State Champion Auctioneer and is a member of the Georgia Auctioneers Hall of Fame.

Ralph Zettlemoyer of Fogelsville, Pa., is a past director of the NAA, having been elected in 1985. He has been an auctioneer since 1955, when he joined the association. He has conducted farm equipment, real estate and antiques and personal property auctions. He has served as a judge for the NAA’s International Auctioneer Championship. In addition, he has served as president and vice president of the Pennsylvania Auctioneers Association (PAA) and in 1994 was inducted to the PAA Hall of Fame.

The NAA is a nearly 6,000-member organization dedicated to advancing the auction profession. It recently fulfilled a $1 million pledge to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and has since made an additional $1 million pledge.