Mel Garber - Always Messing with Plants

Mel Garber was born in Beaumont, Texas and reared in rural Louisiana near the big city of Lafayette.  Mel’s father was a dairy farmer.  Mel, the second of five children (three brothers and one sister), became accustomed to rising early at a young age to assist with family milking chores and to train for the later in life for early Saturday/Sunday morning road race starts.  He attended Judice School from grades one through twelve (they don’t make schools like this anymore, at least in Georgia) and was active in 4-H activities from grades 5-12.  During that time, he was the high scorer of a state champion dairy judging team.  Mel knows udders and is still very judgmental!  Mel’s first encounter with running was in a mile competition in high school where he peaked with a 4:46 time and he has been going downhill since.

After high school, Mel graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Southwest Louisiana, since renamed the University Louisiana-Lafayette.  As a “Ragin Cajun” (the equivalent to being a Georgia Dawg) Mel served as the President of the Agricultural Student Government Association and had the perk of watching Terry Bradshaw perform on Saturdays for the football team prior to his pro career with the Pittsburg Steelers.  Mel went on to his own pro career accepting a graduate assistantship offer from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.  Initially placed on the snow shoveling squad, Mel showed promise and was moved to the PhD (post hole digger) program in Horticulture.  Mel graduated in 1974 with a PhD degree in Horticulture including minors in Plant Physiology, Plant Biochemistry (not Bo), and Plant Ultra Structure.

Mel next accepted a position at Iowa State University teaching and performing horticultural research for three years.  Mel alleges that Ames, Iowa winters were more severe than those he experienced in Ithaca, New York.   He next embarked on a thirteen year stint in the private sector with the Weyerhaeuser Corporation.  His places of operation resembled a tour of the USA, beginning in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he later was moved to Tacoma, Washington, then to sunny Orlando, Florida, and back again to Tacoma.  Mel held positions in addition to that of a corporate gypsy as research scientist, research manager, business general manager, and new business development manager.

Mel left the private sector for a more stable academic environment accepting a position at the University of Georgia in 1990.  Mel’s initial UGA position was as Cooperative Extension Specialist-Nursery and Greenhouse Crops (located in Tifton, GA where Mel fought gnat propagation). Mel thereafter relocated to Athens as the Associate Dean for the Cooperative Extension Service and currently is the Director of the prestigious UGA Archway Partnership. Mel is tired of moving and plans to take the wheels off his house and retire in the Athens area when he has enough points to win his age group.

Not content to propagate plants in a lab, Mel has fathered two children. His daughter Raegan (age 36), is the mother of his two year old grandson and resides in Orlando, Florida. Sadly, his son Dustin passed away prematurely at age nineteen.  Mel and current wife Barbara have a stepdaughter, Brittany, who teaches Spanish in the Thomasville, GA school system.

Mel has always been athletic, and played in adult soccer leagues prior to finding the running circuit. His favorite Black Bag Race Series races are “the short ones”-Tallulah Falls, the Dam Run, the Twelve Days of Christmas in July mini-series, and Watkinsville’s Scarecrow 5K.  He also enjoys fishing and recalls one occasion when fishing for salmon in the Yakutat River in Alaska when he had to scare away bears to get to the river.  Mel and Barbara attend all UGA football home games and are aiming for Jim “Snake” Rasnake’s record of perfect attendance for fifty years of home games.

Bob, checking out from the back of the back.  Look for more profiles on patriotic mother and runner Colleen Stephens, and January on age group leader Randall Martin.