Lampasas High School graduate Mike Yeary has been honored as the Colorado Wool Growers Association Guest of Honor.

Yeary is the state director for Wildlife Services in Colorado.

He graduated from Texas A&M University and began his career in 1979 as a wildlife damage control specialist with the Texas Rodent and Predatory Animal Control Service.

He served in Dallas and Amarillo and left Texas in 1985 to take a federal wildlife biologist position with the Animal Damage Control Program in Oklahoma.

After a couple of years, Yeary became an assistant state director under the Oklahoma State director of the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services Oklahoma/Kansas program and dealt with wildlife damage management issues in Kansas.

After several years in Kansas, he moved on to a wildlife biologist position with Wildlife Services in Colorado and was promoted to district supervisor over Eastern Colorado in 1996.

In 2002, Yeary was promoted to state director where he has worked diligently with the Colorado sheep industry to mitigate predator damage.

Yeary also serves as Colorado ambassador for Hunt of a Lifetime, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to grant hunting and fishing adventures and dreams for children under 21 who have been diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses. He has been actively involved with coordinating and taking kids on hunts for several years.

Yeary is the son of Willerson and Lorena Yeary of Lampasas.