Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/459886
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER FEBRUARY 15, 2015 11 One of those people was Cashmere grower and hor- ticulturist Ray Schmitten. While working at Blue Star Growers, Cashmere, Valentine was the fieldman for Schmitten's family, who had a small orchard. Ray went to WSU planning to go into forestry but Valentine suggested he look a little closer at the tree fruit program. "He said, 'There's lots of jobs there and I'm sure you'd have a job when you graduate.'" Schmitten recalled. So he took Valentine's advice. "I think Fred, behind the scenes, made sure the indus- try supported me, and he actually made some phone calls when I got out, and lo and behold I got a job in the industry. It was due to him that I ended up employed right away." For his first few years in the industry, Schmitten spent a lot of time learning the ropes from Valentine. "And I've been depending on him ever since," he said. "Any time I had an issue with apple or pear, I would usually go to Fred first. He was always free with his information. It could be horticulture, it could be variety, it could be pest manage- ment, it didn't really matter. He was involved in all of it." Janie Countryman, research assistant with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Wenatchee, also benefited from Valentine's intervention. In the 1990s, when he was chair of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, he stepped in to make sure her position wasn't eliminated for lack of funding. "I owe everything to him," she said. *RRGHPSOR\HH Jerry Kenoyer, retired manager of Blue Star Growers, who worked with Valentine for 30 years, said Valentine was a good friend and a very good employee. "And, frankly, he was pretty close to being self-employed. My philosophy is to hire good people and leave them to do their jobs, and he was one who could do that. "Fred was outspoken, but he had the growers at heart," Kenoyer added. "If he thought he was right, there was no backing down." An example of Valentine's impact comes from Fred Smith, retired manager of Wilbur-Ellis Company in Cashmere. Smith said growers are still benefiting today from research that Dr. Tom Raese, USDA plant physi- ologist, did on the pear disorders alfalfa greening and corkspot. Valentine ensured that Raese had the industry cooperation he needed to do his orchard trials for that research, which showed that the disorders could be con- trolled by foliar calcium applications. This significantly improved packouts and grower returns. Valentine is still speaking out for the pear industry. Recently, during a Tree Fruit Research Commission pear research review, he made an impassioned plea for more research on pear pest management. For several years, Washington State University has had no entomologist dedicated to pear pests. "We're so close to losing this pear industry that it's very frightening," he told the commissioners. "If you drive up and down the Wenatchee Valley you'll observe the fact that we're not controlling pear psylla. Trees are black from pear psylla honeydew." IPM in pears has been less successful than in apples because of pears' sensitivity to mites and because of the repeated pesticide applications growers have to make to control pear psylla. Valentine also went twice to WSU's main Pullman campus to appeal to administrators for help, but to no avail so far. "He's still insulting people—I think that's the right word—trying to make people realize we have a very, very serious problem as far as our pest control program on pears," Fred Smith said. "We're paying the price for that lack of entomology right now," commented Randy Smith, who agrees with Valentine that research ought to help with problems growers are currently facing as well as future needs. "I think Fred had a lot of wisdom in that." Though a strong supporter of WSU's apple breeding program, Valentine has also expressed frustration about how WSU "botched" the release of its first two varieties by failing to name WA 2 and devising a complicated royalty system for WA 38. Despite his willingness to take a stand, Valentine has rarely made enemies. Schmitten said if Valentine had a strong opinion on anything, it was well thought out and it was not just his opinion. He was speaking for the majority—whoever he was representing. "He'll spend a lot of time listening before he gives his opinion. Almost always, when he speaks, he's speaking not just for Fred, but for a group." "He's always had an outgoing manner, and a smile, and a shake of the hand, and an interest in what was happening in your life and with your family," Auvil said. "And he never made a controversial issue an issue. It was always people first." • Valentine Scholarship To recognize Fred Valentine's contributions to the tree fruit industry, an endowment fund has been established in his name that will offer an annual scholarship for a student to attend Wenatchee Valley College. The Fred Valentine Scholarship is administered by the Washington Apple Education Foundation, www.waef.org. GERALDINE WARNER/GOOD FRUIT GROWER )UHG9DOHQWLQHKDVDOZD\VEHHQH[WUHPHO\VXSSRUWLYHRI:68³VDSSOHEUHHGLQJSURJUDPDQGDWWHQGHGDOOWKH¼HOGGD\V VD\VEUHHGHU.DWH(YDQV