After 30 years breeding peaches for the South—15 in the Prince series alone—W.R. (Dick) Okie retired this year. He is still working until a successor is decided upon. Courtesy of W.R. Okie W.R. (Dick) Okie, the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s stone fruit breeder in Byron, Georgia, for more than 30 years, retired earlier this year and is continuing to work part time until a new breeder is hired. “My successor will have lots to evaluate,” Dr. Okie said. “We have a lot of seedlings in the ground. We plant 3,000 to 5,000 peaches every year, and about half that many plums, […]