Wallace Pate's son, Jack Pate (right), presented the Wallace Fennell Pate Wildlife Conservation Award to Dr. Hugh Hogle (left) in front of 1,400 attendees at the Grand Banquet on March 2, 1996. A recent stroke has made it difficult for Hogle to speak, so his wife, carol (center), gave a moving acceptance speech on his behalf. After Hogle received two standing ovations, Elk Foundation Chairman of the Board Dr. Richard Gooding said, "I've known Hugh a long time, they don't come any finer, and we owe him a whole lot."

During the Grand Banquet at the Elk Foundation’s 1996 International Elk Camp and Exposition held in Reno, Nev., Foundation President Bob Munson (1984-1998) reminisced about a letter he had received from Dr. Hugh Hogle of Salt Lake City when the Elk Foundation began 12 years ago.

“He was the first to write after reading Bugle,” Munson recalled. “He wrote: ‘If there’s anything I can do for this outfit let me know, because my heart is into the wildlife conservation mission.’ We took him up on it, and he became our first volunteer.”

With that sort of commitment, it seemed only fitting that Hogle should receive the Elk Foundation’s highest honor, the 1995 Wallace Fennell Pate Wildlife Conservation Award.

Hogle has dedicated his life to wildlife conservation. Among his many awards and appointments, Hogle has served as a member of the Wetlands Foundation of Utah board of directors, co-chairman of the Utah Roundtable of Sportsmen and Conservation Organizations, and a member of the Utah Ducks Unlimited State Committee. He spent two terms on Utah’s Wildlife Board (commission) and served on the Elk Foundation Board of Directors from 1987 to 1993. In 1994, the U.S. Senate appointed Hogle to the Utah reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission, where he was responsible for distributing millions of dollars in wildlife habitat mitigation funds.

An avid bowhunter, waterfowler and angler, Hogle exemplifies the caring and ethical hunter. Also a talented writer and photographer, he has contributed many stunning wildlife images to Bugle.

The Elk Foundation established the Wallace Fennell Pate Wildlife Conservation Award in 1993 to recognize those who have made contributions of lasting significance to the benefit of elk, other wildlife and their habitat across North America. The award is named in honor of the late Wallace Pate, first Elk Foundation president and chairman of the board. During his lifetime of working for wildlife, Pate became a national role model for what groups or individuals can do to conserve wildlife and wild places.