but he understood growing apples. And after talking 

 with him, a few influential growers recognized that. 

 Perhaps more importantly. Bill Pearse, probably the 

 most influential quality control man working for the larg- 

 est apple wholesaler in Massachusetts, saw the prom- 

 ise of better pest management with fewer pesticides. 

 Ron was a little different and intense, but I know Bill 

 liked and respected him, and the feelings were mutual. 

 I'm sure BUI quietly suggested that growers give some 

 of this IPM stuff a try, and at the same time, set Ron 

 straight as to how far growers might actually be willing 

 to go. In the next decades, even after Bill's death. 

 New England apple growers would be leaders in using 

 IPM, because Ron wanted to do more than just hide in 

 the University and write papers. 



But of course he did write all those papers too. I 

 probably never will really understand how, but I'm glad 

 that he did it, that he managed to get down on paper so 

 much of the knowledge he gained. Ron collected 

 knowledge, from growers and other scientists, from 

 everyone he met, from his experiments, he gathered it 

 in, processed it in his own inimitable way, and wrote so 

 much of it down. What a tremendous legacy. While no 

 one will ever touch each of us the way Ron did, I re- 

 main hopeful that some of his students, or perhaps his 

 students' students, will be able to bridge that widening 

 gap between academics and our agricultural resources, 

 and carry on Ron's dream of a truly ecological, sus- 

 tainable orchard. 



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Fruit Notes, Volume 69, Spring, 2004 



