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| Let’s take one last stroll through The Back Forty |
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An old friend to Farm World and its readers is putting aside his keyboard and picking up his fishing pole. Roger Pond, author of the weekly column called The Back Forty, has decided it’s time to retire. You can find his final installment on page 5B in this week’s paper.
Roger has been published in this paper – along with dozens of others across the United States – for more than 25 years. The Back Forty featured Roger’s agricultural knowledge mixed with farm-spun memories and even soft touches of political analysis of farm policies. He has been among the most-read columnists in Farm World in the 10-plus years that I’ve had the pleasure to work with him.
Although Roger has lived in the State of Washington for nearly 40 years, he has ties to the Midwest and the Farm World coverage area. His professional career began as a vocational-agriculture teacher in Ohio in 1966. Later, he worked with the Ohio State University Extension Service for three years.
After earning a Master’s Degree, Roger moved to Washington in 1972 to work with that state’s Extension service. He moved on from his Extension career in 1983, and he began to seriously pursue his newspaper column. Four books and well more than 1,000 columns later, Roger is ready to move on to new challenges.
A great friend of Farm World, and at my invitation, Roger flew in from Washington to attend our first Farm World Expo farm show in Terre Haute, Ind. in 2003. Roger didn’t want to give a speech or get in the way of our show preparation. He was just hoping to meet some of his readers and get a little feedback.
As it turned out, Roger’s booth – neatly set up with some of his books and a little sign – was very busy during that Expo. He sold books, signed autographs and talked with each person who stopped to chat. Roger has been and will always be a true professional.
So, along with me, please turn to the B section and take one final stroll through Roger Pond’s Back Forty. |
| 10/6/2010 |
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