Reid Neslage, at right, accepts his Fellows plague and congratulations from Dr. Randall Davidson, left. Mr. Neslage was one of three new Fellows honored during the 2010 Annual Conference.

Photo/Tom Thatcher

Dr. Randall Davidson
USITT Fellow

Today is one of the most auspicious moments of my life. I am greatly privileged to honor an individual who has for over 40 years, quietly and successfully contributed, through his professional expertise and skills, a bountiful service to the entertainment and performing arts community and industry throughout the world. His personal dedication and gifted mind have brought about a revolution in protecting tens of thousands of individuals who work and play in the entertainment industry.

Literally, through bouts of illness and economic struggles, he has persevered in bringing to the world, our industry, and to USITT and all its members, his personal generosity and keen insight into the design and manufacture of rigging equipment that reached the highest levels of quality and integrity.

He is the epitome of what USITT was founded for and a sterling example of what all of us should strive to be, a consummate and caring technical expert. He possesses those vital virtues so necessary in this fast-moving technological world that motivate him to envision equipment that will be safe, secure, efficient, and protect the lives of those who install and use it.

In my 45th year of USITT, I could ask for no greater honor than to welcome into the Fellows of the Institute, a personal friend of many years, a man whom all of us owe a lasting debt of gratitude for his unstinting dedication to USITT and all those who work in the world community of the performing arts and entertainment.

I ask you to stand and welcome this man who has given of himself and his gifts to protect and enhance your lives and those who you work with every day, Mr. Reid Neslage of H & H Specialties.

Mr. Neslage was one of three new Fellows to be inducted in a ceremony at the 2010 Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. This honorary designation is given to those selected by vote of the current Fellows and is bestowed for life upon those members who have made a truly outstanding contribution to the theatre and the work of the Institute.

Click their names to read the introductory remarks about the other new Fellows, Ursula Belden and Gordon Pearlman.

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