Here’s To a Fruit Industry Award Befitting the Man
August 30, 2022 If you want to understand how engaged the late, great Dick Meister was, consider that he was still emailing me about industry issues at the age of 97. I always had a special connection with Dick because I was at the helm of his baby. He served as Editor of American Fruit Grower, the company’s original flagship publication, for 40 years, traveling the country covering the latest developments in the science of fruit production. Dick believed editors should get to know their readers — literally. Get out of the office, meet them in person, and truly understand their challenges. I try to follow his lead as best I can.
Richard T. (Dick) Meister was the son of the company’s founder, an inspirational leader, and the driving force behind one of the most successful agricultural media organizations in the U.S. Meister passed away peacefully on January 28, 2020; he was 100 years old.
Dick Meister addresses the Washington State Horticultural Association meeting in 1948. Photo courtesy of Meister Media Worldwide
We want to honor Dick’s memory with an award that goes to a kindred spirit, someone who cares about the industry as much as Dick. We think their contributions and achievement should be recognized with a special award.
Sometimes people pass from our lives too soon, but of course they should be remembered. This award is for anyone passionate about the fruit industry, living or dead, who truly made a difference.
We are not limiting the Richard T. Meister Award to fruit growers alone, but as noted above, to anyone who truly has made a difference in the industry. After all, Dick was not a commercial grower himself. But he did have a BA in pomology from Cornell (and an MBA from Harvard), and while he later became Editorial Director over all of our horticulture publications, his first and true love was fruit. I received more emails than any other editor, after all.
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The first recipient of the Richard T. Meister Award is in fact a grower, however. Bruce Hollabaugh of Biglerville, PA, was just 41 when he died from a brain tumor in March, leaving a wife and three children. But he had the respect typically reserved for a much more senior grower, commanding attention through achievement, constant learning, and the ability and willingness to speak his mind about this industry.
Dick Meister
You can read about Bruce in another story included in this month’s coverage. I note in that story that Bruce came from a fine fruit-growing family and would almost certainly have won the American Fruit GrowerSM Apple Grower of the Year award someday, just as his father Brad did 22 years ago.
But Bruce was much more than an apple grower — too much of a free thinker. In fact, not long after he started full time at the family farm, he established an acre of blueberries, doing all the site prep, selecting varieties, and planting. He was also instrumental in the family’s expansion into other berries, even vegetables. What’s amazing about that is with his experience in fruit, he knew nothing about vegetable plasticulture, but undismayed, he dove right in. That’s the kind of spirit we’re looking for in an honoree for the Richard T. Meister Award.
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