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LONGTIME EDITOR STEVENSON RETIRES FROM AUBURN UNIVERSITY
AUBURN, Ala.__--R.E. (Gene) Stevenson, longtime writer and editor in
Auburn University's Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and head
of the Department of Research Information will retire effective Dec.
31, according to an announcement by Lowell Frobish, Experiment Station
director.
Stevenson joined the Auburn faculty in 1955, as an assistant editor
in the Department of Research Information. In 1982, he was named editor
and head of the Department, and in 1990 he was named as an assistant
director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station.
A native of Harvest, Stevenson earned a bachelors degree in Agricultural
Science from Auburn University, but discovered an interest in creative
writing during his college studies. After graduation in 1951, he landed
a job with Farm and Ranch Magazine in Nashville, where he remained until
called back to active duty with the U.S. Navy during the Korean Conflict.
After discharge from the Navy, Stevenson was appointed as an assistant
editor in the Department of Research Information (then Publications)
in 1955. For the past 36 years he has played a key role in providing
the information necessary for farmers and livestock producers in the
state to fully utilize technology as it has developed. Through his editing
of Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station publications and writing
about research conducted at Auburn University, Stevenson has made the
technology of agriculture not only available, but understandable and
interesting.
During his tenure at Auburn, Stevenson worked on over 1,500 Agricultural
Experiment Station publications, 144 issues of Highlights of Agricultual
Research, a quarterly magazine published by the Experiment Station,
and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles.
His retirement marks the end of the Ken Roy era at Auburn. Roy became
the first writer/editor for the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1943
and was named head of the Publications Department when it was established
in 1947. He was succeeded as Department Head by E.L. McGraw in 1968,
and by Stevenson in 1982.
In addition to being a prolific writer and editor, Stevenson was an
active member of Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) and the
Communication Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists
(SAAS). He served as editor of ACE Quarterly and was a member of the
Association's Board of Directors. He is currently vice-chairman of the
SAAS Communications Section.
Stevenson is best known for his series of columns, "Research You
Can Use," which appeared for nearly 30 years in Progressive Farmer
magazine, and for his role in developing Highlights of Agricultural
Research into one of the most widely read and respected quarterly research
magazines in the United States.
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December 1991
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