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MAN OF MANY TALENTS & CULTURES
FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER
DR. JOHN E. OSGUTHORPE
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2
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Page 1
Page 2
Page 3 Page 4
– Photos
Page 5
Dr. John E. Osguthorpe was born January 22, 1916, in Salt Lake City,
Utah, the oldest son and second child of Edgar and Hazel Capson
Osguthorpe's ten children.
Martha, Ada, and
John. About 1926.
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photo for larger image.
He attended primary, junior and
senior high school in Salt Lake County and graduated from Utah State
University, Logan, Utah in June 1939, with a major in Agronomy and Soils
and a double minor in Animal Husbandry and Horticulture. He worked as a
ranch hand in Ruby Valley, Nevada, during the summer from 1935-1939 to
partially pay his way through college.
Upon graduation John was employed by the Porter-Walton Seed Company as a
field inspector, seed analyst, buyer, warehouse man and seed processor
until joining the United States Navy, Aviation Division, in early 1942.
Discharged in 1946, he went to Fairbanks, Alaska, as an employee of
Alaska Agriculture Experimental Station first as a dairyman and later as
research agronomist and superintendent for eight years.
Fairbanks, Alaska, July 4, 1948. John
driving a team from the station pulling a stagecoach.
Double click photo for
larger image.
He took a leave of absence for
two quarters in two succeeding years and was awarded a Masters Degree in
seed technology, plant breeding, and plant ecology at Montana State
University in Bozeman. While attending, he was made a member of Sigma
Psi for outstanding original research.
In 1953 John resigned
from the Agriculture Experimental Station and enrolled at Oregon State
University in Corvallis to pursue a Doctorate degree. He left in March
1955 to accept a position as Regional Research Agronomist with the U.S.
Department of State Agency for International Development and was
stationed in Beirut, Lebanon. He served there about four years, until
all foreigners were evacuated from the area because of a revolution. He
was next assigned to Tunis, Tunisia, as the agronomy advisor where he
served for two years in cereals, forages, sugar beets, and livestock.
Next, John was assigned to an
academic year at Mississippi State College in Starksville, Mississippi,
to work in the field of seed technology. Courses included structural
engineering in construction and layout of seed processing plants,
placement of machinery, and the use of various seed cleaning equipment.
He was to head up the contract team to be furnished by Mississippi State
seed technology division for a worldwide program of seed production
processing and testing of selected varieties of crops. Before
implementation of the program, emphasis shifted to other programs and
the position was canceled.
Following Mississippi State
College, John was enrolled in advance language training in French in
Washington, D.C. and later transferred to the A.I.D. Headquarters in
Rabat, Morocco, as the Deputy Food and Agriculture Officer with
responsibility for field crops, livestock, and range management, but
with emphasis on cereal research production and processing. He served in
this capacity for the next four years. A.I.D. Agency for International
Development – U.S. Department of State.
Transferred to the Washington,
D.C. headquarters staff, John was assigned to the Agriculture Materials
Division, the largest agency with worldwide responsibilities. His office
was responsible for fertilizers, chemicals, seed and horticulture crops
in purchasing, packaging and shipping. Backstopping the technical staff
throughout the world, he was often called on to travel extensively to
many countries for consultation, or to attend and speak at numerous
conferences in many countries and the United States.
These included: Representative
on Presidents Committee on Pesticides of Environmental Quality Control
Council, USDA Research and Investigation Laboratories in Gainesville,
Florida, Stored Products Laboratory, U.S. Public Health Service,
Savannah, Georgia, Wheat Breeding Conference in Yuma, Arizona, Tennessee
Valley Authority, Muscle Shoal, Alabama, International Wheat Improvement
Center, Mexico City, 14th Annual Conference of the International Plant
Food Institute, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to name only a few
during 1969 only.
John was awarded the Superior
Service Award for outstanding contribution in carrying out the
objectives of the War on Hunger to help bridge the growing worldwide gap
between population and available food resources, and for outstanding
initiatives and imagination, exceptional efforts in developing policies,
directing the procurement of fertilizer, insecticides, and seeds.
John established standard
specifications for quality control and methods of testing which became
the Manual Orders for all fertilizer purchased by the U.S. Government
and accepted by most of the industry. He developed a woven polypropylene
bag with a 4 mil polyethylene liner for fertilizer shipments. These bags
saved millions of dollars and were accepted worldwide. Annual budget for
his office totaled $500,000,000.00 and savings for one year was
$14,000,000.00 Similar amounts were realized before and after the 1969
budget review.
A quote by a Division Chief
about John: This dedicated, sincere, selfless agency officer is unusual
among A.I.D. technical resources, having a knowledge and technical
expertise, a liaison working and coordinating capacity seldom
duplicated.
At the National Plant Food
Institute Conference in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, in 1968,
the speaker, President of Conoco Oil, stated, "John is the most
knowledgeable person in fertilizers in the United States. In Waaginean,
Holland, at the World Seed Trade Association Conference in April 1976,
the President stated, "John is the outstanding seed man in the world."
In 2002, Utah State University stated that John has done more to feed
the world than anyone in the state of Utah.
Over the next six years John
traveled the world to over one hundred countries giving speeches,
attending conferences, inspecting and evaluating research planting,
consulting on field problems, shipping and handling fertilizers and
chemicals. (He also monitored four International Research Projects in
wheat and corn in Mexico, pulses and beans in Nigeria, rice in
Bangladesh and Philippines, and potatoes in Peru). He had a leading role
in policies on fertilizers, seed, and agriculture chemicals.
John was also a technical
assistance resources for A.I.D. on fertilizers, seed and pesticide
programs worldwide. In addition to being a competent agriculture
technologist, he has a comprehension and detailed knowledge of the
structure of production, utilization and trade in fertilizer, pesticides
and agricultural chemicals with special ties throughout the world. He
has a broad global knowledge of economics and technical development in
processing, marketing, manufacturing, as well as demand production and
pricing in the world markets.
It is little realized that the
purchases of fertilizer by A.I.D. are large enough to influence or be
disruptive of domestic prices and supplies, if not judiciously handled.
Poor timing specification, bagging and procurement procedures could add
millions to the cost. With one mistake, the Government Auditing
Office/Congressional make inquiry and public indictment could be
expected. Against this potential catastrophic situation must be balanced
by an individual of absolute integrity and honesty. He must work at all
levels, including with the A.I.D. Administrator, Presidents of
fertilizer and chemical companies, all levels of Embassies of importing
countries, including the Ambassador and all requesting field missions
and their directors – Annual report 1968.
Scheduled to be rotated back to
the field in August 1969, the Administrative Assistant to the
Administrator stated, "John is the sole source within the Agency with
overall responsibility on standards and procurement in agriculture
materials program. The Agency would suffer a major setback if they were
to lose his services at this time."
John rotated back to the field
in 1970 and was assigned as the Regional Food and Agriculture Officer
for Senegal, Mali, Mauretania, Gambia, and Guinea. Here his work kept
him traveling seventy-five percent of the time for the first two years
to correct the errors and put on a new footing several programs,
including a regional poultry program in five countries, a Central
Veterinary Laboratory in one country, grain production and stabilization
in four countries, and the Sahel Drought Disaster in three countries.
During flying reconnaissance out of Mali over the southwestern Sahara
Desert region, he was involved in an airplane crash in an uninhabited
region and broke his wrist. A week later he was called to Mauretania to
fly in the Sahara Desert inspecting the severity of the Sahel drought.
His plane went down and he was stranded for some time, the second time
in two weeks.
Plane crash in Mali.
Double click photo for
larger image.
One week later, flying out of
Liberia, looking over rice growing areas, he missed the plane he had
charted because of arriving too late. He later learned that darkness
overtook the plane on the return trip from the Guinea highlands and
without navigational equipment they landed on a dirt airstrip, overran
the runway, and killed three of the seven inspection crew. There were
three potential plane crashes in three weeks, in which drugs were
involved.
In 1971, John established the
West African Rice Development Association composed of fourteen countries
of Central West Africa, and he managed it from headquarters in Dakar,
Senegal, along with his other work in the Area Development Office. The
fourteen countries were composed of Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Sierra Leone,
Ghana, Liberia, Togo, Dahomey, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Upper Volta,
and Mauretania, from the Sahara to the tropical Guinea Highlands, an
area approximately the same size at the United States. Shortly before
moving his headquarters to Monrovia, Liberia, from Dakar, Senegal, he
was the recipient of a Certificate of Merit Award. His staff in Liberia
was composed of men and women from sixteen different countries. He was
listed as the A.I.D. Advisor Project Manager for the West African Rice
Development Association (WARDA).
His performance summary as
Regional Food and Agricultural Officer for 1971 states: He possesses
that rare combination of extensive knowledge in his field, considerable
and varied experience, both practical and academic, a clear
understanding of the responsibilities which his position involves, and
an untiring devotion to the aims and goals of U.S. assistance to
developing nations. Since undertaking his present assignment, John has
traveled at least seventy-five to eighty percent of his time between
capitals and in rural areas in order to deal with project related
problems as well as coordinating country counterparts. He drafts
operational budgets, assists the T.D.Y. (technical assistance temporary
staff) in their reports, and acts as liaison between host government
officials and U.S. Embassy officials in the six countries.
After two years with West
African Rice Development Association while stationed in Monrovia,
Liberia, he decided he was wearing out, having been abroad for over
thirty years. He decided to return to Washington, D.C. There he was
assigned to attend the Congressional Operation Seminar and then was
assigned as liaison to the Senate and House of Representatives at the
Capitol for several months.
In early January 1975, after
giving it little thought, he announced his resignation and heard an
outcry, "You can't leave us now, we need you badly." John returned to
Salt Lake to visit the family, never intending to stay because he felt
like a foreigner. He still felt more at ease in other countries. His
stepmother's health was failing and she would soon pass away; and his
father, then eighty-seven, was in failing health with cancer. In foreign
countries, the eldest son is obligated to take care of his parents. John
had lived among that culture, and felt it was up to him, so he set out
to make his father's last years as easy as possible. He felt he could
always leave after his father passed on. Before this time came, John
came to feel less of a foreigner in his own country and decided to stay.
Busying himself in Academics,
irrigation seminars, pruning classes, master gardener courses, certified
pest control operator, and various other related fields of operation,
John also volunteered as a science teacher at a grade school. Twice he
went overseas on assignment for the Consortium for International
Development (comprised of Utah State University and five other state
universities) to Niamey, Niger, on seed production in 1978 and later to
Conakry, Guinea, in 1980 and 1982, at the request of President Sekou
Toure to assist in the upgrading of the Agriculture College. He returned
two years later to see their progress.
John did not intend to remain
in the United States. But after taking so many classes and attending
conferences at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, in spite of his
determination not to become involved in stateside affairs, he gradually
reacquainted himself with his old alma mater and became more active in
academic and civic affairs.
In 1993, with his wife Ruth whom he had married in 1979, John joined the
Old Main Society through a gift to the John E and Ruth M Endowment.
John and Ruth.
Double click photo for larger
image.
They were honored and presented
a wooden gravel made from the Old Main Building in 1993. At the
Founder's Day Award Ceremony, he was honored with the Distinguished
Alumni Award. In June 1998, John was honored with an Honorary Doctorate
Degree from Utah State University. Read more in the
book. . .
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