Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Remembering Former Center Director Rick Melnicoe


Rick Melnicoe was a fixture in Western agriculture for decades.

As the regional coordinator of the specialty crop pesticide program known as IR-4, or the director of the Western Pesticide Impact Assessment Program, or the founding director of the Western Integrated Pest Management Center, Rick met with, worked with, ran with and influenced a lot of people.

Here a few voices from that chorus.

“My memory of Rick was that he was very practical,” said Carrie Koplinka-Loehr, who was a co-director and director of the Northeastern IPM Center while Rick led the Western Center. “He was very level-headed. He knew an lot about pesticides and pesticide safety and was able to use that knowledge.”

Rick chaired the Regional IPM Centers joint meetings shortly after Carrie joined the group, and she learned from his leadership.

“He was one of the people who shaped my early experiences and expectations about the job,” she said. “I was grateful to him for providing a role model for me.”

Rick was an avid runner, and fast. Idaho’s Ronda Hirnyck, who worked with Rick for years in IR-4 or other programs, remembers getting dropped by Rick on an early morning run in New Orleans and yelling for him to stay in sight.

“We’d start out tighter on runs, but never finish together.”

Rick was frugal with taxpayer funds and didn’t spend them easily. He was networked throughout the West and nationally, and able to advocate for Western needs and priorities.

Former Southern IPM Center Director Jim VanKirk remembers Rick’s ability to move past confrontations or difficult encounters and maintain relationships and friendships with people.

“He’d take care of other people,” Jim said. “He was strong. You could count on him to try to move past difficult things and get people to try to move forward together. If there were 300 million people like Rick in this country, we would be a lot better off."

Rick brought binoculars on trips and a list of birds he hadn’t seen in the wild.

While serving as director of the Western IPM Center, he also ran California’s Office of Pesticide Information and Coordination. Lisa Blecker took over that portion of Rick’s responsibilities when he retired in 2012.

“He never seemed stressed or frazzled,” she said. “I have no idea how he did that. He was always calm and collected, just getting it all done without making a fuss about anything. He was so even tempered.”

Rick had opinions and would advocate for them, but would also change his mind when presented with a better idea. He believed in science-based solutions. People remember that.

Diane Clarke, former Center writer, remembers Rick’s generosity, kindness and friendliness.
So do others.

“He was great with people,” Ronda said. “You could always count on him.”

“He was just a good person,” Jim said. “He always seemed to do the right thing.”

“I really think he was a good soul,” Carrie said. “He had higher goals and really worked to see people succeed together.”

See Rick's obituary in the Sacramento Bee

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Rick and I were great friends and shared a cancer journey. Mine turned out better than his. We worked together in the early days of the W-IPMC to raise awareness of the pest management needs of the Western Region

We had a tearful phone call on Super Bowl Sunday several weeks ago. We spoke about our work together wit he Center and W-SARE. He knew the end was in sight but was hoping to get home one last time.

He lamented having to watch the game on a small screen when they had recently purchased a 65" flat screen.

I valued his advice and friendship and am better for having known Rick. I will miss him.

Mike Harrington

Phil Rasmussen said...

I was director of the Western SARE program while Rick served on the WSARE Administrative Council. Beyond his amazing work forming and building the Western IPM Center, Rick was the perfect Administrative Council member @ WSARE--always contributing positively to whatever was on the table (agenda).
He was always able to turn the discussion into both a positive process and positive outcome with his wise and kind comments. I shall always remember this ability to keep positive in tough situations.

We will miss Rick!

--PHIL Rasmussen

JEA said...

I first met Rick when he became the Western Region Coordinator for the National Pesticide Impact Assessment Program (NAPIAP) and I was the Northeast Region Coordinator. This program transitioned to the IPM Centers where we both served in leadership positions for our respective regions. Rick was tremendously strong voice in both programs. The Regional IPM Centers would not be the strong organizations they currently are without Rick's input. He always made positive contributions to our discussions.

I considered him as much more that a professional colleague, he was a great friend. I will miss him!!

John Ayers

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