PROSSER, Wash. — After nearly 40 years at Washington State University and myriad contributions to agriculture, scientist Gary Grove, 72, officially retired in December 2024.
Throughout his career, Grove studied everything from fossilized plants to viticulture, with research on powdery mildew, soybean pathology, and a variety of other topics thrown in for good measure.
“My career offered the opportunity to see places and meet people I never would’ve met otherwise,” Grove said. “I’ve also loved spending time in the classroom. Watching the metaphorical light go off above students’ heads and seeing them get excited about the material — it doesn’t get any better than that.”
An Ohio native, Grove received his master’s degree in paleobotany from Ohio University. He cultivated a love of plant pathology while studying pathogens in soybeans and strawberries and evaluating new soybean varieties to determine their resistance to root rot.
After earning a PhD in plant pathology from Ohio State University, Grove moved to the West Coast for a postdoctoral research position at the University of California, Davis. There he studied corky root, a soilborne disease impacting tomatoes.
In 1986, WSU hired Grove as a tree fruit pathologist based at the Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center (TFREC). He credits much of his success there to former TFREC Director Jay Brunner.
“Jay was the best mentor I ever had,” Grove said. “His approach to leadership was a balance of being personable and professional. He was a teacher in the purest sense of the word.”
One of the first scientists to research powdery mildew in cherries, Grove spent his first decade at WSU determining the fungus’ disease cycle and how to manage it.
Grove remained at TFREC until 2000, after an epidemic of powdery mildew descended on wine grapes in eastern Washington.
“The wine industry approached me and asked if I could start a project on powdery mildew in grapes,” Grove said. “The tree fruit industry ended up benefiting too, because I was able to leverage resources while applying more focus on two epidemiologically similar pathogens.”
The new wine grape project meant a relocation to WSU’s Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center (IAREC), where Grove studied the pathogen’s life cycle and disease cycle.
Meanwhile, his WSU Extension work included speaking at pesticide education events, providing diagnostic services to growers, and editing crop protection guides for tree fruit and grapes. He also held a variety of leadership roles, including two different stints as director of WSU’s AgWeatherNet, an automated network of stations across Washington state that provide current and historical weather data.
“My first time as AgWeatherNet director was a high point of my career,” Grove said. “I was able to replace all of the system’s old hardware with new equipment. I also decided to switch it from UHF radio frequency to cellular transmission, which allowed us to redirect some of our AgWeatherNet personnel to other areas like model development.”
Grove continued his wine grape powdery mildew research until 2010, when WSU hired Viticulture Extension Specialist and Professor Michelle Moyer.
“Gary’s work on powdery mildew epidemiology has laid the foundation for how we now design and implement spray programs,” Moyer said. “His long-standing fungicide trials also helped product developers get efficacy data to bring new tools to market.”
In 2013, Grove stepped into the role of IAREC director, a position he held for five years. Then he pivoted to another career highlight.
“I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my career in the classroom, and that’s exactly what I did,” said Grove, who taught classes on a variety of topics including viticulture and plant pathology.
In retirement, Grove plans to stay busy by actively pursuing hobbies like nature photography, scuba diving, and guitar playing.
“Gary is truly a man of many interests,” Moyer said. “This made working with him a joy — you can have excellent science-focused conversations, but you could also talk about life.”
Grove will also stay on at WSU as professor emeritus, with plans to revisit previous research on pathogens that affect cherries and wine grapes.
“One study provided conclusive evidence that the sexual fruiting bodies of both the cherry and grape powdery mildew pathogens can move in the wind, something that’s never really been documented before,” Grove said. “Right when we finished the study in 2012 is when I became IAREC director, so I never had a chance to write it up. I want to publish the findings — they go against conventional dogma, but they’re very important.”