Holm, Rick Merrianne, Saskatoon, April 21, 2009

Rick Holm

Following graduation I worked for Geigy Canada Ltd for the summer and started a MSc in weed science at the U of M in the fall. Merrianne & I were married just after Christmas in 1969. In 1971, we moved to Prince Edward Island where I worked for the PEI Dept. of Agriculture & Forestry where we developed a lasting love for the Atlantic Provinces, Maritimers, lobsters and scallops. One highlight of my job there was meeting the Queen and Prince Phillip when they visited the Research Station. I finished writing my thesis while working in PEI and received my MSc in the fall of 1972.

In 1976, the call of the west was strong and we moved to Regina where I worked for Saskatchewan Agriculture as Provincial Weed Control Specialist and later as Supervisor of the Crop Protection Section. Our son, Erik, was born there in 1977. He was a classical musician in high school and university and now works in a classical music store in downtown Vancouver. He and his wife, Alice, who works for the Dept. of Indian & Northern Affairs, live in Richmond. No grandchildren yet but we keep hoping.

In 1981 the desire to see more trees and hills drew us to Saskatoon where I joined Federated Co-operatives Ltd as their agronomist for western Canada and traveled extensively throughout the prairies. In 1984 I moved to the University of Saskatchewan and for 15 years held a joint appointment in Plant Sciences and Extension in which I conducted research in agronomy and weed control, taught in those areas and co-ordinated the department’s extension activities. In 1999 I left that role to become Director of the University’s Crop Development Centre and kept on with my weed control research. In 2006, I decided I’d enjoyed enough administration and returned to a research and teaching role in Plant Sciences. I currently teach a course in Pesticides & Crop Protection and one in Agronomy in the winter and participate in Crop Diagnostic courses and field schools in the summer.

Merrianne has worked at many things along the way including being a primary and junior high school teacher, an instructor for many different sewing and quilting courses and doing promotional / educational work for the Beef Information Centre. She has also been a very active volunteer at church and for many school and community causes. We like to travel and have visited many interesting places in connection with conferences that I’ve attended and also on holiday. Two very memorable work related trips for me were visits to Mongolia in 2002 and Ethiopia in 2007, both of which illustrated very clearly how extremely lucky we are to live in Canada.

No definite retirement plan is in place yet but we’re looking forward to that in the not too distant future. Staying is Saskatoon (a great city) or moving to the west coast are the two options under consideration.