I received a BS from Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and MS from Cornell University, College of Graduate Studies. I have remained close to my roots in agriculture throughout my career. I worked in fruit farm management in both NY and Michigan for approximately eight years.

In 1980, my work experience shifted to apple storage, packing, and marketing when I took a position at a large, cooperatively owned apple storage near Grand Rapids, Michigan. I returned to NYS in 1985 when I began work with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service. During the ten years with Extension, I co-authored Bulletin 221, “Predicting Harvest Date Windows for Apples”.

Between 1996 until January, 2006, I worked in Quality Assurance for Sun Orchard Fruit Company, Burt, NY. Sun Orchard packs and ships apples to domestic wholesale accounts including Wegmans and Publix Markets, as well as, export markets in the UK. Currently, I am Eastern Regional Technical Manager for AgroFresh, a division of Rohm and Haas, and work out of a home office. I am responsible for technical support in apple growing areas in the eastern US and Canada. As a result, I spend about 60% of my time on the road and am still getting acclimated to the new job.

I married Teresa “Teri” Mendez in 1975 and we have two children, Katherine and David, soon to be 23 and 21. Katherine is a student at SUNY, Brockport, and David will be joining the Army in August. My hobbies include gardening, bowling, and golf.

I will be looking forward to renewing friendships at the upcoming reunion.