John E. Osguthorpe, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, June 24, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 667

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JOHN E. 0 GUTHORPE J 24 2004 agricultural officer with responsibility for five different countries. I went from th re ... After four years, there was a revolution there and the Marines came in and we were all kicked out of the country. After that, I went to Tunis, Tunisia, for two more years. Then the government sent me to Mississippi State University for a year of advanced training in seed technology. I was to head up the world seed production program at Mississippi State University. Before I got through with my year of academics there, the head of the AID, Agency for International Development, changed his department heads. He had fancy ideas, so he cancelled that program and I was sent back to French language training. I had spent two years in Tunisia and went to Morocco after the language training and spent four years in Morocco. In the meantime, my wife and I had split up and I was transferred back to Washington, DC. I was put in a division in charge of all seed production work worldwide. From there I worked up to head of the Agricultural Division. I had worldwide responsibility for all seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and horticulture crops for the entire world. Eventually, my budget was a half a billion dollars a year. I was the biggest fertilizer buyer in the world. I was buying over three million tons of fertilizer every year for worldwide distribution. I also had a staff of only four people. I would travel the world, recommending and pushing various forms and types of seeds and chemical fertilizers. While I was in Washington, I went down to the National Plant Food Institute annual meeting in Greenbrier, West Virginia. There I was accorded recognition as the outstanding fertilizer man in the United States. Several years later, I was in Wageningen, Holland, at the International Seed Production program and was honored as the 3