BROOKINGS – The Rudy Nef and Max Gonzenbach families and Valley Queen Cheese of Milbank were recognized as the 2021 Philanthropic Family of the Year by the SDSU Foundation.

The award, created in 2012, “acknowledges exceptional generosity to diverse causes by a family that serves as an inspiration to others to support South Dakota State University.” It was announced April 22 at the SDSU Foundation’s annual donor celebration, hosted virtually this year.

Valley Queen Cheese was founded by Alfred Nef and Alfred Gonzenbach in 1929. Their sons, Rudy and Max, assumed leadership and continued to build the company. Both Rudy Nef and Max Gonzenbach have been significant personal donors to SDSU, in addition to investments made by Valley Queen.

The Milbank company was a major force in the expansion and renovation of facilities supporting SDSU’s dairy program, as both a lead donor and active fundraiser for the Davis Dairy Plant and Alfred Dairy Science Hall, which is named after Gonzenbach’s and Nef’s fathers.

The new dairy facilities were dedicated in 2011.

President Barry H. Dunn announced the honor and focused on the families’ enormous legacy at SDSU. 

“Thirty years ago, Rudy and Max had the foresight and generosity to give SDSU its very first endowed research position. It is called the Alfred Chair in Dairy Education, named in honor of their fathers, Alfred Gonzenbach and Alfred Nef – the founders of Valley Queen. Max and Rudy were the first to embrace the importance of an endowed faculty position that would help SDSU increase its research bandwidth and help in the recruitment and retention of talent,” Dunn said.

Today, SDSU has commitments in place for 35 endowed positions – ranging from a dean to directors, chairs and professors. Max and Rudy brought SDSU the first.

Doug Wilke, CEO of Valley Queen Cheese, expressed his gratitude for Rudy and Max being great examples for their team for many years, especially when it comes to philanthropy during the event. “Their commitment to charitable giving and making our community, state and industry stronger continues to live on in our core values and through the Valley Queen Charitable Foundation.” 

Valley Queen has been a significant employer of graduates of SDSU’s dairy program. Presently, it has 24 SDSU graduates on staff.

The Nef and Gonzenbach families and Valley Queen Cheese are the 10th to receive the award. The first recipient was the Dale and Pat Larson family of Brookings in 2012. 

Since that time, the Les and Wanda Roberts family of Ashton; the Bob and Pat Fishback, and Van and Barb Fishback families of Brookings; the Larry and Diane Ness family of Yankton; the Gene and JoAnn Goodale family of Brookings; the Duane Harms and Barbara Reed Harms family of Brookings; the Keith Rounds and Cathy Vander Wal-Rounds family of Brookings; and the Al and Irene Kurtenbach family of Brookings have been honored.