A mountain community blog titled Placerville.info ran a 950-word obituary recently about retired El Dorado County UC Cooperative Extension director Dick Bethell. The post also included a 1,400-word article authored by Mr. Bethell titled "A pest control program for your home orchard."

The story says Mr. Bethell passed away May 24 at the age of 80. According to the blog, he moved to Placerville several years before pear decline wiped out the area's top horticultural crop. He developed programs to fight the disease and published Pear Pest Management, the first pest management manual for an agricultural crop.

A major accomplishment of his 36-year career with UCCE was formation of Apple Hill, the first ranch marketing program in Northern California and a major tourist draw, the obituary said. Mr. Bethell also oversaw planting of wine grape test plots at various foothill elevations and in 1967 persuaded enologists from UC Davis to produce wine from the crop. Successful tasting events ignited an El Dorado County wine industry that grew from 6 acres to more than 2,000 acres of vines and 50 wineries during his tenure, the story said.

A memorial service was held this week at the Boeger Winery.

The black and white photo shown with this post is from the El Dorado County UC Cooperative Extension Web site viticulture page.