The Western Region of North America is pleased to announce that the 2020 International Award of Honor is presented to Dr. Eugene (Gene) Blythe by the Officers and Directors of the International Board of the International Plant Propagators' Society.
Gene joined the Society in 1980. He was Vice President of the Western Region from 1994 to 1998, President from 1998 to 1999, and Editor from 2016 to 2019. Gene and his committee organized the Western Region's annual meeting in Ontario, California, in 1998. He was Western Region's Alternate Delegate to the International Board in 1999, 2015, and 2016, and Delegate to the International Board in 2000, 2017, and 2018. Gene also organized the IPPS international tour of Southern California nurseries and gardens in 1992.
Gene received his B.S. in Horticulture with a minor in Botany from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1980. A few years later, he returned to Cal Poly, Pomona, and completed a B.S. in Business Administration in 1988 and an M.B.A. in 1989.
Gene began his career in horticulture in 1980 as Research Propagator for Monrovia Nursery in Azusa, California. He became Assistant Propagation Manager in 1986 and Propagation Manager in 1991.
In 2000, Gene returned to school to pursue an advanced degree at Auburn University in Alabama. He completed a Ph.D. in Horticulture in 2003 with his dissertation on alternative methods of auxin application in cutting propagation. He also earned the degree of Master of Probability and Statistics in 2004.
Following a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Riverside, from 2005 to 2006, Gene was a faculty member at Mississippi State University's Coastal Research and Extension Center at the South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station from 2007 to 2019, advancing to the rank of Research Professor. He is presently the Director of Statistics in the College of Agriculture at Auburn University.
Gene has authored or coauthored hundreds of publications, including in-house research reports, scientific papers, articles in trade publications, Extension publications, posters, abstracts, and newsletters. Of particular interest to IPPS members is "Methods of Auxin Application in Cutting Propagation: A Review of 70 Years of Scientific Discovery and Commercial Practice." This review paper was first published in 2007 in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture, then republished for the IPPS in 2008 as a two-part article in the North American Regions Plant Propagator.
In 2013, Gene was the recipient of the Curtis J. Alley Award of Merit, the highest award presented by the Western Region. He became a member of the Southern Region in 2012, while also continuing as a member of the Western Region. Throughout his career, Gene has encouraged student and colleague participation in annual IPPS meetings. He has devoted his career to furthering our knowledge of plant propagation and horticulture, and exemplifies the IPPS motto: "To Seek and to Share."
