12/07/2009

Farm Organization Honors Guthrie for Service to Agriculture

The state’s largest and most diversified farm organization has awarded its highest honor to Richard Guthrie, dean of the Auburn University College of Agriculture and director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, in recognition of the outstanding contributions Guthrie has made to Alabama agriculture throughout a 42-year career that includes 26 years at Auburn.

The Alabama Farmers Federation presented its Service to Agriculture Award to Guthrie Dec. 6 during the organization’s 88th annual meeting in Mobile. In making the presentation, Jerry Newby, federation president, hailed Guthrie as “a true friend of the farmer” who long has kept a finger on the pulse of Alabama agriculture and recognized and responded to the needs of the state’s food producers.

Guthrie’s Auburn connection began in 1958 when he enrolled as a freshman on a football scholarship. Four years later, he received his bachelor’s degree in agronomy and soils, followed in 1965 by a master’s in soil science. He earned his doctorate from Cornell University in ’68 and worked for several years for the U.S Department of Agriculture as a soil scientist in what today is the Natural Resources Conservation Service but returned to Auburn in 1983 as professor and head of the Department of Agronomy and Soils.

He served as acting dean of the College of Ag from 1985 through 1988 and then was named associate dean of international agriculture programs, a position he held until his first official retirement in 2003. In fall 2005, however, Guthrie came out of retirement to assume the dean and director positions he now holds but from which he has announced he will permanently retire in May 2010.

Newby noted the dramatic advances that have occurred in agriculture since Guthrie launched his career.

“Farmers now use less fertilizer and fewer chemicals and they use precision agriculture, and it is proving to be a better, smarter and cheaper way to do business,” Newby said. “Soil scientists like Dr. Guthrie are one reason for that. By helping farmers better understand the soil beneath their feet, they have enabled our farmers to produce better and more abundant crops.”

The Alabama Farmers Federation’s Service to Agriculture Award is the latest on an impressive list of honors Guthrie has received, including induction into the Alabama Agriculture Hall of Honor in 2009 and, in 1996, the winning the AU Athletic Department’s Walter Gilbert Award, which recognizes Auburn athletes who have distinguished themselves through achievements after graduation.

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12/07/2009

Contact: Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

OFFICE OF AG COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 COMER HALL, AUBURN UNIVERSITY
AUBURN, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)
AgComm@auburn.edu