Your Incredible Neighbors: 90-year-old resident keeps active with two passions: gardening, hiking

What began as a not-so unusual area of scientific study has led 90-year-old Kirk Lawton to specialize in quite an unusual area of study and career — and visiting and working in no less than 57 countries.

Moving to Green Valley in 1982 as a winter resident, Lawton has lived in one of La Posada’s garden homes since 2000.

A man who likes to grow things, when he entered the University of Minnesota, his plan was to study botany, but he said he just couldn’t get into it. An astute instructor realized he was interested in soil — not plants — and thus began Lawton’s studies and career in soil science and agronomy.

Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of crops and the soils in which they grow; agronomists work to develop methods that will improve the use of soil and increase the production of food and fiber crops.

Calling himself “a city boy” from St. Paul, Minn., Lawton’s first real experience working with soil and living on a farm came at age 20 when a family took him in for the summer.

From that summer experience evolved a career where Lawton’s titles included research associate, professor, agronomist, acting dean, director, project leader — and chief of party.

“My first full-time job was as a research associate at Iowa State University… then I was an assistant professor at Michigan State University,” he said. These two positions gave him the experience needed for posts in developing countries and led to his first overseas employment with a U.S. AID project in cooperation with Michigan State at Balcarce Agricultural College in Cali, Colombia.

Succeeding assignments then took him to the University of Nigeria, Gadjamada University in Indonesia, the University of Ceara in Brazil, the Ministry of Agriculture in Uruguay and the Agricultural College at the University of Zimbabwe.

Widowed in September 2006, Lawton said his wife Marjorie wasn’t always able to leave when he did. “We had kids in school; she would join me when school was out. When she arrived she had to learn how to shop in local markets and how to hire servants. She was a great help to me.”

He explained his work as on agronomist in developing countries this way: “As colonial countries in Africa and Asia were gaining their independence from their European rulers in the late 1950s, 60s and 70s the U.S. became concerned about how these countries were going to feed their rapidly expanding populations.

“Past colonial inputs to agriculture were focused almost entirely on crops such as coffee, tea, cocoa, rubber, spices and palm oil that brought money back to the home country.

“In 1960 the U.S. State Department created the an agency called U.S. AID, which turned primarily to America’s Land Grant Universities for assistance in strengthening the agricultural institutions of these newly-independent countries.”

Lawton was involved as an advisor and/or project leader in helping to build or improve the educational, research and extension of agricultural institutions in Colombia, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina Uruguay and Zimbabwe. He said populations began to rise as a result of malaria and other diseases being controlled.

With a mission of getting universities and ministries of education to work together, Lawton said it was disappointing at times because there was no agency to bring the two together.

A copy of his resume and career moves shows that he “retired” in January 1980, but from March 1984 to March 1986 he was Chief of Party for a U.S. Aid project at the University of Zimbabwe. Asked to explain his return to work after so-called retirement he said, “I missed it. I really missed it... I got antsy and I loved to travel.”

He said Michigan State was looking for someone to help the University of Zimbabwe expand, to develop new courses and laboratories, and the challenge was there. At the time his wife said, “I’m not really happy but I’ll do with you.”

Of the two-year experience Lawton said, “It looked productive but telephones and railways were not developed enough. The government of Zimbabwe, which gained independence from Great Britain in 1980, wanted the British out but they didn’t have the experience to take over. Things began to go downhill.”

A self-proclaimed organizer and one who finds it difficult to say farewell to stacks of paperwork, among Lawton’s keepers is a nine-page diary of every flight and the airline he flew on from 1957 through 1999 and a listing of brief visits to agricultural, educational and research organizations in Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Central and South America and Africa.

Turning 90 on Sept. 6, Lawton said his mongrel mutt Freddi is good company. He’ll celebrate the special birthday by giving a talk about his hiking adventures to residents of La Posada on Sept. 8.

He still enjoys working with the soil and gardening. Of his green thumb skills he said, “I do well with flowers, I don’t do so well with vegetables.” Evidence of his prolific gardening skills is everywhere at his garden home at La Posada. His outdoor back patio is a blaze of summer color; and a portion of a covered patio that he enclosed is a lush greenhouse filled with an array of green plants—asparagus fern, pothos and other plants that don’t usually do well in the dry desert climate.

Lawton also keeps active by hiking every Saturday morning. He goes out with a group and has hiked the Santa Ritas, the Santa Margaritas, Rincon Peak and the Grand Canyon. From his hikes he’ll bring home an unusual rock; his varied collection lines the top of his garden wall and is an easy reminder of his pleasant outdoor expeditions and extraordinary career.

Ellen Sussman is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News. Contact her at ellen2414@cox.net