William Darrow Jr.

William Darrow, Jr. 1920 - 2009 PUTNEY William H. Darrow, Jr., long-time resident of Putney and proprietor of Green Mountain Orchards, died on June 10, 2009. He was 89 years-old. Born March 29, 1920 in Boston, Mass., Darrow was the eldest of two sons born to William H. Darrow, Sr. and Ellen P. Darrow. His father, born in Springfield, Vt., in 1890, established Green Mountain Orchards in Putney, an apple orchard still in business. The orchard originated in 1914, when William, Sr. bought a defunct hill farm on West Hill in Putney and planted apple trees and other small fruit. In 1929 William, Sr. resigned his position as Extension Horticulturalist with the University of Connecticut and moved to Putney with his young family. Darrow graduated from the Putney Central School in 1933, and from the Putney School in 1938. He received a degree in horticulture from the University of Massachusetts in 1942. Immediately after college Darrow enlisted in the United States Air Force. After training at the Air Force's Celestial Navigation School and receiving his wings, he was sent to the Air Force Bombardier School and upon graduation was assigned to teach navigation at that school. The Air Force later sent Darrow to the Pacific theater, and at the close of the war he was a Lieutenant 1st Class assigned to a B-25 group stationed in the Philippines. In August, 1946, after several months of Air Force duties in Korea and Japan, he returned to the United States and was decommissioned from active duty at Fort Dix in New Jersey. In the Fall of 1946 Darrow returned to Putney to help his father with the apple harvest. In the Summer of 1947 he met Idolene Hegemann, then a second-year student at Harvard Medical School spending the Summer with her mother Ida Belle Hegemann at the latter's Putney home. They married in Putney in November, 1947. Between 1949 and 1956 Bill and "Ivy" Darrow had five sons. During that same period William Darrow, Sr., retired from Green Mountain Orchards and Darrow became manager of the orchard. In the late 1940's Darrow ran the Veterans Farm Program, arranging evening classes and lectures by agricultural experts for veterans who wished to farm. He was a long-time Putney School Board member, leading the move to expand the Putney Central School in the mid-1960's, as Chairman of the School Board. Darrow also served as President of the Putney Credit Union; President of the Putney Consumers Co-op; Trustee of the Putney School; Putney Town Moderator; and member of Governor Thomas Salmon's Food Council. In the early 1960's, as owner-operator of Green Mountain Orchards, Darrow became involved in horticulture on a national level and served several terms as President of the National Apple Association. While working with the National Apple Association he traveled extensively, visiting growers all over the United States and representing the NAA in connection with various policy matters. Also during the 1960s and '70s Darrow bought other farms in and around Putney and planted them with apple trees, expanding Green Mountain Orchards into the largest privately owned orchard in Vermont. During the 1970s Green Mountain Orchards was harvesting over 100,000 bushel of apples annually, selling to markets up and down the East Coast. The orchard grew a multitude of different apple varieties, in addition to blueberries. Also during the 1970s Darrow formed associations with European apple growers, studying their cultivation methods and sharing his own. He was particularly interested in the European use of "dwarf" root-stocks, which produce smaller trees, as well as different and new apple varieties. The smaller trees could be planted more densely, were easier to pick, prune and care for, and increased apple yield per acre. Darrow visited many European growers, and many such growers visited Green Mountain Orchards in Vermont, in a mutual exchange of cultivation techniques and theories. As an avid, life-long skier, Darrow often visited and met European growers on Winter ski trips to Europe. In the 1980's Darrow served two terms as Vermont's Commissioner of Agriculture under Governor Richard Snelling. While Commissioner, he drew notoriety for his efforts to protect prime agricultural land - particularly along the Connecticut River Valley - from development, and for urging that if gas prices rose significantly Vermonters would wish for more locally produced food. In the late 1980's and 1990's, Darrow turned orchard management over to his sons. In retirement, he and Ivy traveled extensively, wintered in Mexico, and enjoyed their grandchildren. In 2004 Ivy Darrow died at home in Putney at the age of 80. Darrow leaves his brother, Dr. Robert P. Darrow of Mendon, Vt., and five sons: Steven, of Putney; Nathan, of Schylerville, N.Y.; Mathew, of Putney and Floyd, Va.; William, of Burlington, Vt.; and Evan, of Putney; as well as nine grandchildren: Sonya, Emily, Casey, Lara, Elsa, Robin, Eric, Anna, and Katherine. MEMORIAL NOTICE: The memorial service will be at 11 a.m. on Sunday, June 21, in the Calder Hall at Putney School, in Putney, Vermont