Learning from the Previous Generation

I recently learned that Dr. John Van Duyn passed away. He was an entomologist at the Vernon James Center for many years who lived near Edenton. While I didn’t know him when I was a youngster in the area, I did get to know him in 1996 when I moved back to North Carolina and began my role as the peanut extension specialist at NC State. Dr. Van Duyn was an expert in his area of study and made many contributions to farmers in North Carolina. Although we did not work on the same crop, whenever I saw him make a presentation or answer questions from the audience, I would listen intently and I walked away with a better idea about how to conduct research and extend the results to growers and those who support them. Dr. Van Duyn was very thorough. He had important points to convey. He would fall into the category of unofficial mentor for me. Those are often the very best kind. I am thankful that I saw that side of John early in my career.

A second thing I remember about Dr. Van Duyn was that he was very curious about nature and knew a lot about it. I talked with him sometime in late 1996 about joining his hunting club on the southern end of Chowan County, and in 1997, he and others allowed me to join. That’s where most of our conversations took place. John seemed to shift from hunting to mostly fishing as the years went past, but I will always be grateful for his leadership of that club and opening the door for me to get in. It was more than just an opening to a hobby. When I was a boy, Mr. Shepherd let my dad and I hunt in the woods on both sides of the long beach road which later became a part of the club. It was a wilderness, and I felt a little bit like the Robert Redford character in Jeremiah Johnson. In those woods at that time, I really did feel like I was going to stumble onto a lost tribe. In my thirties, I realized the wilderness was smaller and the distance between hunting spots shorter as the crow flies. Through Dr. Van Duyn’s kindness and letting me in the club, I got to relive some of those moments and was able to tie together a lot of thoughts while the morning or afternoon progressed in the quietness of the woods. That was a gift, and John was a big part of it.

I spend a lot of time these days on the road in eastern North Carolina looking at peanuts. The stretch of old 64 and then 37 north from Plymouth to Edenton is not a part of those routes in most cases. When it is, or when I travel that way home to Edenton, I ride by the Vernon James Center, and once I get to the tall part of the bridge across the Albemarle Sound, I can look to my right and see the old hunting areas of that club. On that route, there’s not a single time that I don’t think of Dr. Van Duyn and “those days.” I am the recipient of knowledge and wisdom from Dr. Van Duyn through his professional career at NC State and the recreation in Chowan County. I will be forever grateful to him for both.