The Michigan State Horticultural Society presented two Distinguished Service Awards during the 2024 Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market EXPO banquet on Dec. 11. The awards were given to fruit grower David Smeltzer and Michigan State University Department of Horticulture Chairperson William Vance Baird.
David C. Smeltzer
Smeltzer’s great-great-grandfather established a fruit farm in Northwest Michigan in the 1880s, and the Smeltzer family has continued the fruit-growing tradition for more than a century.
Smeltzer worked summers at the family farm and joined the operation as a partner in 1979, after graduating from Alma College. By 1991, he and his wife settled in Onekama Township, where he served 17 years on the township planning commission.
Smeltzer currently serves as chair of the Michigan Cherry Committee. He has also served on the boards of the horticultural society, the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Foundation, the Benzie Manistee Horticultural Society, the Benzie-Manistee County Farm Bureau, the Manistee Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and the Manistee Conservation District.
Smeltzer has been active in local school and sports activities for years, is involved in a local jail ministry and helps organize and host community events. In 2019, his farm hosted Michigan’s Progressive Agriculture Safety Day, welcoming more than 300 students and 100 volunteers to promote farm safety and rural health.
One of Smeltzer’s points of pride is working with a dedicated team. Two longtime employees devoted more than 40 years to his farm. Their contributions are a testament to the deep bonds formed within the agricultural industry, he said.
William Vance Baird
Baird joined MSU’s Department of Horticulture as chairperson in 2009. He came from Clemson University, where he served on the faculty for 20 years. His scientific expertise is in the areas of plant response to environmental stress, gene expression, genome structure and function in tree fruit and the effects of herbicides in weed and crop development. He earned a doctorate in biology from the University of Virginia in 1983.
As hort department chair, Baird works with Michigan’s specialty crop industries to foster beneficial relationships between MSU faculty members and industry stakeholders. He advocates for faculty and extension personnel to mix applied research with outreach responsibilities. Baird has been a member of the Michigan State Horticultural Society board since 2009 and works to maintain connections between MSU and Michigan’s fruit industry.
Baird also performs other roles at MSU. He serves on the directorate of the MSU Institute of Agricultural Technology and, for more than a decade, he has reviewed proposals for MSU’s Project GREEEN. He is also director of MSU’s Plant Biotechnology Resource and Outreach Center.
The American Society for Horticultural Science recently gave Baird its Outstanding Leadership and Administration Award, and the Michigan Vegetable Council presented Baird its 2024 Master Farmer Award during the Great Lakes EXPO banquet.
—by Matt Milkovich
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