GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Wallace Heuser has traveled the world to spread the word about high-quality, high-efficiency fruit production, and was named the 2011 recipient of the Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB) Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award.

The honor was bestowed upon Heuser during a Dec. 1 banquet at the MFB 92nd Ann-ual Meeting in Grand Rapids.

“Since 1956, Michigan Farm Bureau has presented its Distin-guished Service to Agriculture award – the organization’s highest award – to deserving in-dividuals who have made exceptional contributions to the state’s agricultural industry,” said MFB President Wayne H. Wood.

“Hundreds of people can list Wally Heuser’s contributions to the fruit industry, and every person he influenced felt his genuine, personal interest in them, not just as fellow fruit growers, but as human beings.”

During his career, Heuser has introduced nearly 100 new apple varieties which have revolutionized the industry by offering better color, flavor and growth characteristics, including the patented Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Paula Red varieties. He is recognized as a worldwide authority on fruit varieties, rootstock development and orchard management systems.

In his early days, Heuser started out operating Hilltop Orchards and Nurseries. “He was considered then an innovator, an expert horticulturist and a marketing specialist,” Wood said.

Heuser grew up on a fruit farm in Hartford and earned a bachelor’s degree in pomology from Michigan State University in 1950, where he led his student pomster club to install a refrigerated apple vending machine in the horticulture building.

Upon graduation, he returned to the family farm, expanding it from 250 to 1,000 acres. He also developed a state-of-the-art packing and storage facility on the farm, and he established Hilltop International to market the farm’s patented plant materials.

Even fresh out of college, Heuser was willing to stretch conventional limits, recalled MSU classmate Paul Rood. “Dwarf trees were just an idea a college department head had,” he said, “but Wally took hold of it, grew dwarf trees and helped the whole industry change.

“It was a radical idea, but he recognized the possibilities. And when he concentrated on being a nurseryman, everything he propagated was made better.”

Heuser’s foresight into the movement toward smaller fruit trees led to the creation of the International Dwarf Fruit Tree Assoc., now known as the International Fruit Tree Assoc. (IFTA), of which he was founding president. IFTA serves a vital function in educating fruit growers worldwide and in promoting advancements in orchard technology.

“I know of no other individual who has so greatly influenced the present commercial tree fruit industry,” said Jerome Hull, MSU professor emeritus in the horticulture department. “Nearly all of the nation’s orchards today are planted on dwarfing rootstocks, yielding trees smaller in stature, more precocious and more efficiently managed.”

William Baird, professor and chair of the department, agreed, calling Heuser’s contributions to the tree fruit industry “unparalleled. “He is recognized worldwide as an authority on deciduous fruit varieties, rootstocks and orchard management systems, and an expert horticulturalist, nurseryman, innovator and marketing specialist,” Baird said.

In 1989, Heuser established and became president of Summit Sales, Inc. and Inter-national Plant Management, Inc. Summit Sales provides horticultural knowledge, fruit variety and rootstock selection to commercial fruit growers worldwide. International Plant Management’s mission is to test, protect, introduce and market new deciduous fruit tree selections.

“He’s one of the most humble persons I know,” said Trever Meachum, a young fruit industry leader who counts himself fortunate to learn from Heuser.