Hot News

6.17.2008

By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor

ELKTON, Md. — David Almquist is retiring but he does not intend to retreat to the sidelines.
Almquist, at 62 the eldest University of Maryland Extension agricultural agent still on the job, will step down June 30 as Extension director and ag agent in Cecil County.
That will end a career that began precisely 30 years ago on June 15, 1978 when he was named the Extension 4-H and Youth agent in Talbot County.
Through the years, Maryland Cooperative Extension assigned Almquist, a man of even and a most pleasant temperment, to various posts in a total of six counties on the Eastern Shore.
From 2003 to 2006, he served two counties at the same time, in Harford as Extension director and ag agent, and Cecil, as acting Extension director.
In the 1990s, he was the regional horticultural agent for Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s counties.
The day-to-day responsibilities of ag agentry are largely of the nuts-and-bolts variety.
Almquist, however, is a visionary.
He played a leading role in the three years of planning and development that led in 1999 to the creation of LEAD Maryland, the state’s agricultural leadership development program.
He also was a key player in the establishment of the Future Harvest program and in the formation of CLUE, the Collaborative for Land Use Education, a network of departments, programs and disciplines within the University of Maryland to develop outreach and educational initiatives for communities, decision-makers and audiences interested in land use and natural resource protection,
“People in the agricultural sector,” Almquist said, “are at a disadvantage because there are so few of them, and the general population seems to have serious misunderstandings about how food is produced.
“Perhaps the only way farming will continue to be a strong part of the economy in many Maryland counties is through cooperation between farmers and ‘environmentalists.’ LEAD Maryland, Future Harvest and CLUE are all avenues that can lead to this cooperation.”
Almquist says his interest in, and involvement with, those programs will not cease with his retirement.
Oh yes, he will take some time off to work on his stunning Victorian dwelling north of Newark, Del., a home he and his wife, Jan, call “Bedlam.”
Almquist nurtures the idea of perhaps teaching horticulture at a community college or working as a mediator with fellow retired ag agent Eddie Johnson at the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Conflict Resolution Service.
Bottom line, Almquist said: “I will stay involved.”
Born in the Washington, D.C., he was awarded a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1968 by the University of Virginia.
But after two years as a U.S. Army combat engineer in Vietnam, “I got a different perspective on life,” he said.
He returned to school, this time to the University of Maryland to obtain a master’s degree in ornamental horticulture.
He worked for Greenwood Nurseries and Wye Nursery, both in Queenstown, Md., before joining the Extension Service.
Almquist puts this spin on his career: “While it is important to teach the best way to produce a crop, it is equally important to ask ‘Is there a better crop to grow?’ or even (in referencing his work with LEAD, Future Harvest and CLUE), ‘Is there something else I should do with my time, resources and effort?”’