The Maxwell Medallion

DWAA’s premier award for excellence is the Maxwell Medallion. It is known as the Maxwell in honor of Maxwell Riddle, a distinguished past president of DWAA and founding chair of the DWAA Writing Competition.

A feature writer and reporter at the Cleveland Press for 35 years, Maxwell Riddle was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on dogs. His Cleveland Press dog column was nationally-syndicated and ran for 30 years. His column in Dog World ran for 50 years. He also served as Dog World’s Associate Editor during his tenure with the publication.

He wrote 14 breed, puppy and training books. Riddle’s passport included stamps from around the world. He crisscrossed continents, evaluating dogs in diverse locales. He traveled the world judging dog shows, including five times in Japan, twenty-six times in South America, twice in Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, three times in South Africa, three times in Europe, three times in Australia, and innumerable times in the United States and Canada.

As founder of the Ravenna Ohio Kennel Club, he served as its president for 47 years – a tenure believed to be an American record. Riddle was a breeder of Brittany Spaniels. He was inducted into the American Brittany Club Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Brittany Field Trial Hall of Fame in 2000.

Maxwell Riddle was born July 29, 1907 and is a 1929 graduate of the University of Arizona.  Listed as a noteworthy newspaper columnist by Marquis Who’s Who, he was named DWAA Dog Writer of the Year three times and was inducted into the DWAA Hall of Fame in 2006.