GrowerTalks Alum Honored

Chris Beytes

Congratulations to our good friend and former colleague Debbie Hamrick for being named the 2023 North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Distinguished Alumna. Debbie, former editorial director at Ball Publishing and founding editor/publisher of FloraCulture International (today published by AIPH), moved back to her North Carolina home in 1997 to be closer to family, and in 2004 took a job with the North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation, where she serves as director of specialty crops.

Debbie was running FCI when I joined GrowerTalks in 1993. She was the one who introduced me to international travel when we’d cover the International Flower Show, NTV and even hold our own rose conference. Back then, before GPS and cell phones, you found your way around with the aid of maps, written directions, verbal instructions, and the big map that stands at the entrance to every town in Holland. It was an accomplishment to find some of the greenhouses we visited! We also reminisced about the Canal House, our usual 17th Century lodging on the Keizersgracht canal in Amsterdam. And Mangum ice cream bars, a luxury that weren’t available back home.

Congrats, Debbie, and well deserved! GT