BROOKINGS, S.D. – Rhoda Burrows, professor and South Dakota State University Extension Horticulture Specialist, is retiring after 24 years with the organization.
Her many contributions over the years have included supporting local foods, the Master Gardener’s program and producer food safety education. She has also helped to provide regular education through popular programs like Garden Hour, a weekly webinar series during the growing season that offers expert advice on everything plant related.
“It’s been a really fun job because there’s constantly something new to learn,” Burrows said.
Over the years, Burrows has helped the horticulture team secure more than $8.2 million in grant funds for research projects. In addition, she has written dozens of SDSU Extension publications, contributed to nearly 20 horticulture research publications and several trade journal articles, and mentored graduate students with research projects and presentations. Her work has been recognized through several awards, including the Gamma Sigma Delta Extension Award in 2018 and the John Robertson Memorial Award in Horticulture in 2015.
One of her career highlights has been representing SDSU Extension on international travels, including trips to Bolivia, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Poland and Australia. Those trips contributed to her ability to understand South Dakota’s plants and crops in deeper way, she said.
“I am very grateful for the opportunities I had to experience horticulture in some very different cultural and physical settings,” she said.
Burrows grew up in Nebraska and North Dakota as part of a family that grew a lot of their own food. She didn’t realize it at the time, but it was planting seeds for her future career.
Burrows earned her bachelor’s degree in plant science from Montana State University, then traveled to the University of Minnesota for a master’s degree in horticulture and a doctorate in plant pathology.
As an undergraduate, she interned with a botanical garden in Denver, Colorado, that introduced her to an extension horticulture professional who left an impression. It was during her doctorate, working with fungi, that Burrows decided she wanted to return to her horticultural background. She joined SDSU shortly after attaining her doctorate in 2001 as an assistant professor and SDSU Extension Horticulture Specialist.
“I enjoy helping people, so extension seemed like a good fit for me,” she said. “It may not be the huge picture, but you can improve people’s lives in small ways.”
She spent the first eight years based in Brookings on the SDSU campus, then moved to the West River Research and Extension location in Rapid City. She’s spent much of her career working with specialty crops and specialty crop owners, helping to start the South Dakota Specialty Producers’ Association more than 20 years ago.
“It’s much more than I ever would have envisioned,” Burrows said. “I’m very happy with that.”
Overall, Burrows says she’s been proud to see the increased availability of locally grown food to South Dakota citizens. She has witnessed the growth of the grape vineyard and wine industry in the region and has seen the number of farmer’s markets in the state grow from just a handful to nearly 20.
In retirement, Burrows said she looks forward to having more time for her own personal gardening and participation in local Master Gardener groups, as well as spending time with her husband. She is proud of the horticulture team at SDSU Extension and is confident they will continue to support fruit and vegetable production across the state.
“I’ve looked at my role more as aiding people to do what they really want to do, like a chemical enzyme that helps them over that hump,” Burrows said. “It’s more a case of helping to remove some barriers, step back and watch them go.”
