A Fruit Notes Issue in Honor of 

 Ronald J. Prokopy 



Wesley R. Autio 



Department of Plant, Soil, & Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts 



I still have a hard time believing that we have lost 

 our friend and colleague Ron Prokopy in May, 2004. 

 His contribution to the science and practice of apple 

 pest management will never be forgotten. 



Ron Prokopy was the entomological side of the 

 UMass Fruit Program. He contributed regularly to 

 Fruit Notes, Healthy Fruit, and the New England 

 Apple Pest Management Guide. He wrote twenty- 

 six Annual March Messages, an update on the state 

 of tree-fruit insect control for fruit growers, and he 

 spoke at all but three or four of the nearly 60 Twilight 



Grower Meetings since I joined the faculty 19 years 

 ago. Further, he was always available to assist grow- 

 ers with their problems. This tally, however, does not 

 adequately capture how Ron extended the research of 

 UMass to the fruit industry. His outreach efforts were 

 borne from a deep-seated concern for the well being 

 of the tree-fruit industry and the growers as individuals 

 and from an unquenchable enthusiasm for the details 

 of insect pest management. He understood the con- 

 straints imposed on farmers both by the natural world 

 and by society. This understanding helped Ron mold 









Fruit Notes, Volume 69, Spring, 2004 



