OPEN THE DOOR to his office, and you'll find Navajo rugs, sheep hides and even golden buffalo chips, but most importantly you will find a man who considers animals and agriculture students members of the family.

Beneath the wide-brimmed, silver-belly cowboy hat is an honest, original, enduring cowboy. His wholehearted country grin is as contagious as his enthusiasm in the classroom.

As Lyle McNeal tips his hat back, watery blue eyes reveal a man who has spent his life out-of-doors. Years of determination and pride in his students are seen in the easy way his eyes wrinkle at their ends.

McNeal, an animal science professor in USU's College of Agriculture, is the eighth USU professor in 13 years to be named Carnegie Professor of the Year in Utah. The award recognizes an outstanding professor in every state and the District of Columbia for their influence and outstanding commitment to teaching undergraduate students.

Lyle McNeal was the first person in his family to go to college, and his parents weren't able to help him much financially. After 38 years of teaching, he can still sympathize with students who face similar hardships.

Doc, as his students know him, keeps to the old ways - in and out of the classroom. While most professors wear suits and ties, he prefers his Stetson, pearl-button shirts and wool vests. Doc also strives to preserve the Western, sustainable traditions of agriculture while still positively moving forward.

Too often, McNeal says, we look at life through blinders and ignore other inputs, but life is a complex experience with ongoing series of challenges, questions, detours, what ifs, persistence and survivability of the human body and spirit.

"Agriculture encompasses so much more than what our blinders allow us to see," he says. "If I can teach my students to look to the old ways for the new and to become that driving force for success, then I have done my job."

Full of a quiet strength and subtle pride, McNeal knows cattle, horses, sheep and students. He loves the land he works hard for and possesses the ready, ironic humor of the range to connect to his students from all walks of life. As his student, every time I step into his classroom I smile because of the constant delight I feel in learning from him. Because of his influence, I live each day largely satisfied with who I am. It has not yet occurred to me to be concerned about improvement. It is a trick of college life - this contentment I find in each moment. Memories of stepping onto the backs of big boulders on my family's Texas ranch engulf me as I enter Doc's world and once again hear my boots scuff against the black and rust and corn-yellow lichens that covered them.

Doc learned the trade working on his family's ranch in Montana, and he says the desire to produce food was engrained in him at a very young age. He was the first person in his family to go to college, and his parents weren't able to help him much financially. He worked his way through college as a ranch hand for 35 to 75 cents per hour. He lived in barns and traveled to the nearest gas station to clean up before class. He often woke up around 3:30 a.m. to clean manure out of stalls before going to class. A few of his professors refused to let him into class because of his odor. He completed his bachelor's in animal husbandry at Cal Poly University in 1964 and later went on to complete his master's in animal genetics from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Doc's love for family runs as deep as his spirituality. He lives by the words "walk in beauty" which means to be pleased to live on Mother Earth and with Father Sky and to keep oneself in harmony and balance.

His wife Nancy of 45 years says USU is their home and will always be. "We came to Logan when Lyle completed his doctorate at USU in 1978 in animal reproduction, and we never looked back because it's a good place to raise a family and share a passion for agriculture's promise."

Lisa Woodworth, student senator for the College of Agriculture, says, "Doc is as genuine as he is passionate about his love for agriculture and his students. He takes the time to learn about a student outside of being a student."

Lee Scott, a junior in animal science, grew up on a cow-calf operation in southern Wyoming and had difficulty making the transition to college life. "I just missed home. I was ready to leave USU, go home and run the ranch, but then I had my first class with Doc and everything changed. I had found my haven within USU, sitting in Doc's intro to animal science class."

McNeal has the power to take each student's desires, likes and dislikes, and potential and transform the totality of all that into a beautiful work of art, says Ranae Crowley, a sophomore in agricultural communications. "His voice speaks from the heartland of country and weds today's students with vulnerable Western traditions and the promise of agriculture. Doc is as passionate and unequivocal as the land and life that inspired him."

Ask any number of his students, and they will all tell you the same thing. Doc is more of a friend than anything. His open-door policy is known throughout the college. Whether the topic is current hay and beef prices, family or school, Doc takes the time to listen, to look you in the eye and to offer a helping hand. "As a professor, you don't give lectures and tests, you give lessons," he says. "I look at my students, and I see minds ready to be stimulated, enhanced, enlarged. Sometimes you wonder if you're getting through to them, but the gratitude often comes back later when they are alumni. This relationship doesn't end at commencement."