Retired from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre, March 31, 1997.

Before pursuing a career as a plant breeder, Bob was a United Church of Canada minister. Bob entered the plant breeding profession later in life, starting his barley breeding career at the Agriculture Canada Research Station in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1968. He received his Ph.D. in 1975 from the University of Saskatchewan. Being responsible for developing feed barley, he wasted no time in churning out an impressive battery of 6-row feed cultivars. Prior to Bob coming on the scene, feed cultivars were a rarity in western Canada. The development of 'Klondike' barley began to change all that as it had a distinct yield advantage over the cultivars available in the late sixties (almost exclusively malting types). Acceptance of 'Klondike' created the opportunity for other feed barley.

Klondike was followed in rapid succession by Bedford, Leduc, and Johnston. Bedford, was particularly well-suited to Manitoba, and had both a yield advantage over previous cultivars and a remarkably heavy test weight. Bedford became the number 1 variety in Manitoba in 1979 and remained in that position until 1995 - an incredible 16 years! Leduc and Johnston were well-suited to Alberta, where 50% of Canada's barley is produced.

Bob left Manitoba in 1981, for northern Alberta's Peace River district, but started the development of 'Heartland' six-row feed barley before heading north. Heartland was the first high-yielding, short statured feed barley designed for straight-cutting. Unfortunately, it was ahead of its time, as conservation tillage practices were a rare sight on the Canadian prairies in the mid-80's. Upon arriving at Beaverlodge, Alberta, Bob continued his pursuit of new feed varieties, releasing a number of early-maturing cultivars suited to the short growing season of "The Peace". Most notable is 'Jackson', which gave competitive yields while shaving a week in maturity from the "southern" cultivars. He also released Otal, AC Stacy and AC Albright.

In 1992, Bob joined the Alberta/Canada Barley Development group at Lacombe, where he took part in the release of Kasota an early maturing semi-dwarf feed. Aside from his main interest in breeding, Bob also developed genetic marker stocks and, over the years, painstakingly developed Master Dominant and Master Recessive genestocks for use in genetic studies.

In 1995 Bob received the Distinguished Agronomist Award from the Canadian Society of Agronomy for his life's work.
 

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