Question: How did you get involved in the field of agriculture?
Answer: I started working at 14 for the Agriculture College at NC State. That really set the stage for my career for the rest of my life because I was always associated with agriculture from that point on. I stayed there until I went to California to get my PhD at UC-Davis, and that was before the interstate was constructed, so we drove through every little town you can imagine. I came back to NC State, though, as a professor in the weed science field and that’s where I built my reputation. I was given a lot of honors for that and in 1964 I was invited to attend the British Weed Control conference and present my work, which was a high honor for me. I took a job with Monsanto here in St. Louis but after about 10 years I went to the University of Arizona as the head of plant sciences in the agriculture department and that’s where I stayed until I retired. We were able to start some really interesting programs there and we created one on collecting the desert legumes of the world and that project is still ongoing today. I was fortunate because everyone at NC State helped me when I was just a high school dropout at 14. Because of them, I was able to get a bachelors, masters, and doctorate degree all without a high school diploma. The professors became my surrogate family because my family in the country couldn’t provide me with the resources and background to serve as role models and so on. I always felt that in order to be an upstanding citizen and the head of a family, I needed to be recognized in the world and have a good reputation. – Phil Upchurch, resident Friendship Village Chesterfield
#WeAreFriendshipVillage #seniorliving #retirementcommunity #FVatHome #assistedliving #MemoryCare
The above photo and text are part of a year-long project we call We Are Friendship Village. We are posting these photos and brief interviews to our website’s blog section every day as we talk with residents at Friendship Village Chesterfield and Friendship Village Sunset Hills. The idea is to give a short introduction to the residents who make up our wonderful senior living communities and give you a peek at something you might not know about them!
After a year of gathering interviews and photos, we will publish A BOOK featuring all the great residents who participated. AND PARTICIPANTS get A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK! During this year, we will also be sharing these photos and stories on Facebook and other social media such as Instagram, so look for them and please follow the hashtag #WeAreFriendshipVillage to stay current with the project!
We think it’s a great chance to share a bit about who we are! Residents’ participation takes less than ten minutes, so it won’t take much time to be a part of it and we think everyone will enjoy getting to know their neighbors and friends a little bit better!
If interested in participating (or know someone else who might be), feel free to give us a call at (314) 270-7837 or email at nagysteve@fvstl.com or drop by the marketing suites in Sunset Hills or Chesterfield. We have 365 of these to do over the course of the year, so everyone is welcome!
We look forward to seeing you as we get to share insights about the senior living residents who are making our Friendship Village retirement communities so great!
Thanks again!