Ag Hall gets New Inductees

OCTOBER 2007 - Hundreds of friends and admirers gathered to celebrate our honorees of the San Joaquin County Hall of Fame 2007.  The tables were wonderfully decorated by the California Women for Agriculture, the wine graciously donated by Kautz Ironstone Vineyards and the dinner expertly prepared by Tommy Joyce of Top Flight Café.

With great pleasure and awe, we honored the following recipients for their lifelong devotion and dedication to the agricultural industry.

Paul Sanguinetti and his wife Connie run and operate Sanguinetti Ranch, a diversified farming operation that continues to evolve to meet the ever changing agricultural marketplace.  When not farming his own land Paul has been involved with and chaired numerous different organizations and committees.  Paul is a Past President of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation where he is currently the Chair of the Events Committee.  Paul was one of the “founding fathers” of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Foundation for Agricultural Education, a 501(c)(3) organization that awards scholarships and runs one of the largest Agriculture in the Classroom programs in the state.  This summer the Foundation was able to award more than $20,000 in scholarships and gave 39 teachers first hand experience about agriculture in our County.  Paul has been an active member of the Kidney Bean Advisory Board, the California Cattlemen’s Association, and California Beet Growers Associations.  Paul has been on the Stockton Ag Expo Committee for 31 of the shows 32 years, where he is really one of the driving forces behind the show.  Paul also serves on the board of directors for Division 5 at the Stockton East Water District.

Mark Chandler is a 7^th generation Californian with a family background in a diversified grape and tree fruit operation in the Central San Joaquin Valley.  In 1991 Mark came back to the San Joaquin Valley to work at the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission (LWWC) in Lodi where he is currently the Executive Director.  The Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission serves 700 grower constituents with marketing, education and research programs designed to enhance the profitability of local winegrape production.  When he is not helping advance the wine industry in Lodi, Mark farms 180 acres of winegrapes with his wife Jan, in the Lodi Appellation.    Mark and Jan also make wine from each of the six blocks of vineyards that they own.  Mark was named Sunset Magazine’s “Wine Professional of the Year” in 2005.

Gersh Rosen graduated from the University of California Davis with a degree in Agriculture and soon thereafter completed his Agriculture Teaching Credential from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  In 1965 Gersh was hired at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton as a counselor and part time agriculture instructor.  During his career in education, Gersh influenced the lives of hundreds of students but some of his most significant contributions came after retirement when he joined the San Joaquin County Historical Society Monday Mechanics.  The Monday Mechanics repaired, painted and restored tractors and other farm implements close to their original condition.  The Monday Mechanics started a building fund but the growth of the fund was too slow compared to the total need for storage and work space.  So Gersh volunteered to Chair the building fund committee and through his leadership the committee raised over six hundred thousand dollars in cash contributions and got over four hundred thousand dollars of in-kind contributions in the form of donated materials, labor and engineering.  After hearing about Gersh’s great fundraising work, a prominent previous San Joaquin Ag Hall of Fame recipient was so impressed he donated another four hundred thousand dollars to construct another building that showcased the contributions of some of San Joaquin County’s early agricultural lenders.  The net result was the construction of four buildings with over 28,200 square feet of exhibit space that will allow the museum to preserve the history of agriculture and agriculture equipment in San Joaquin County.

Kenny Watkins III has extensive experience as a farmer and a managing partner for his family’s fifth generation farms and ranches.  His agricultural operation includes livestock, row crops, tree crops and hay services.  But Kenny’s biggest accomplishments have come in his work with the San Joaquin and California Farm Bureau Federations.  Kenny moved into the leadership of the SJFBF, starting as the second vice president in June 1999 until finishing as president in May 2005.   During that time he was also involved with the California Farm Bureau Federation (CFBF) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).  Towards the end of his SJFBF presidency there was a need for someone to step up and serve as the interim executive director and Kenny again stepped up, which meant that he served as president, executive director, secretary, treasurer and as publisher of the newspaper.  In December 2005, Kenny went to the CFBF Annual Meeting as one of four candidates for second vice president and, when elected, became only the second member in the history of the SJFBF, founded in 1914, to serve as an officer in the CFBF.  Kenny served the county at SJFBF for roughly 20 years and by being elected second vice president with the CFBF he is signed up for another 24-year commitment to serve California farmers and ranchers.

Armando Baldocchi was born March 6, 1914 to Joseph and Mary Baldocchi.  He was the oldest of four children.  The Baldocchi Family was one of the pioneers in raising asparagus for the fresh market as well as the canneries from the 1930’s through the 1950’s.   He was one of the founders of Mister Spear, a Stockton based business that ships asparagus in gift packs around the United States.  He also served on its Board of Directors until his death in 1998.  In 1951 Armando was one of thirteen farmers who saw a need for a steady pool of laborers to harvest crops in California.  This was the beginning of the San Joaquin Farm Production Association.  They began by bringing in 2,000 Mexican Nationals to help harvest crops and in 1956 its members used over 36,000 workers.  The association worked with its members to make sure they abided by the terms of Public Law 78 to ensure all the aspects of the Mexican national program was followed and as an officer and board member Armando worked with the farmers to help them follow the regulations of P.L. 78.  He became President of the California Asparagus Grower’s Association in 1968 and served as a member on the Board of Directors for many years.  Armando continues to support agriculture even after his passing November 8, 1998.  His family and friends set up a scholarship for Tracy High School Seniors who wish to continue their agricultural education in college.