NPGA names pair of Meritorious Service Award winners

Northland Potato Growers Association has named Bryan Folson and Clark Piepkorn its 2026 NPGA Meritorious Service Award winners.

The pair will be honored at a Feb. 17 NPGA banquet.

Bryan Folson, president of Folson Farms in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, is a fourth-generation potato farmer. He’s following in the footsteps of his father, Richard “Bud” Folson, grandfather Charles Folson and great grandfather Nels Folson, who brought the potato industry to the Red River Valley in 1905, according to NPGA.

Bud Folson died in 1992, leaving the farm to Bryan and brother Barry, who stepped away from the operation in 2016.

Folson and wife Joyce have four sons.

Piepkorn, a North Dakota native and graduate of the University of North Dakota, joined his father, Lee, and other family members at Piepkorn’s Inc. in 1992. The Grand Forks business, which merged with Roger Brakke and family in 2001 to create Midwest Potato Services, focuses on potato sprout inhibition

Piepkorn and wife Kathy have two children.

The NPGA banquet will also feature the ceremonial passing of the chairman’s gavel from current NPGA chair Sander Dagen to chair-elect Tom Nilson.

For more information, email jkuersteiner@nppga.org.