SOUTHEAST HORTICULTURIST RETIRES

Twenty-six years may not have been enough time for horticulturist Dr. Charles Korns to put down roots in Cape Girardeau.

At a retirement dinner at the Drury Lodge Saturday, Korns was honored for his 26 years as an agriculture professor at Southeast and for his active participation in the campus's landscaping and beautification.

Dr. Duane Ford, chairman of the Department of Agriculture, said a scholarship for freshmen in agriculture will be established in Korns' name.

"The scholarship is being created to permanently associate Dr. Korns' name with our department so that future faculty and students can learn about the standards he set," Ford said in a prepared statement.

Korns, who's last day will be Dec. 31, doesn't have any plans for the new year or his new life. He and his wife of 38 years, Marion, will probably not be far from flowers though.

"I don't know what I'm going to do yet," he said. "My wife works in floral design. I have a son, John, in St. Louis who works in the horticulture industry.

"I have a daughter in Arkansas, but she's not in plant growing. I guess she likes plants as long as I can give her a plant that is self-watered."

Korns grew up on a farm in Iowa. He calls working in the greenhouses on campus, some of his favorite places to be, farming indoors.

"I'm going to miss coming to the greenhouse everyday," he said. "Some of the new things we get here, it's like opening a Christmas package; you can't wait to open them and once you open them you can't wait to see what they're going to look like."

The greenhouses were built in 1978 then rebuilt after two of them collapsed in the winter storm of 1979, both constructions under Korns' direction. He has also been responsible, at least in part, for the growth of the horticulture program at Southeast.

Korns started teaching at Mississippi State in 1965.

"I'm going to miss going to the classroom, which I've been doing every single day for 31 years," he said. "I didn't plan on being a teacher. That just happened. I hope I motivate my students so they want to learn more about plants."

Even with all the developments over the years, Korns said technology can't replace education when it comes to growing plants.

"You've got to have a love of plants," he said. "We have all these up- to-date methods of production but you still have to be able to walk by the plants and look at them and try to get familiar with them so you know what they're supposed to look like."

One change for the better in agriculture has been the emphasis on growing crops without damaging the environment. Classes these days stress the right kinds of chemicals to use and the proper way to use them to protect the groundwater.

Korns said he doesn't think he'll just drop out of the horticulture scene.

"I look forward to seeing how plants are going to change from small plants and what they're going to develop," he said. "One thing about horticulture, there's always odd jobs around a person can do like landscape maintenance. And I'm not ruling anything out."

That also applies to where the Kornses will spend their retirement.

"We're going to play it by ear, see how things go. Whether we stay around I don't know because neither my wife nor I is from Southeast Missouri," he said. "We may be moving on.

"But we'd have to do a lot of thinking before we leave Cape because we've made a lot of friends."