Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

November-December 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 6

Horticulture honors alumni and friends

OUTSTANDING — Horticulture awards were presented Oct. 21 to, from left, Mark Valdez, Cecil Bittle, Hazell Reed and Abbas Shirazi.

The Horticulture Department presented Outstanding Alumni, Outstanding Friend and Distinguished Service awards during a reception Oct. 21 at Ella’s Restaurant in the Inn at Carnall Hall.

Dr. Hazell Reed, Ph.D. ’83, of Dover, Del., and Dr. Abbas Shirazi, BSA ’79, of Lisle, Ill., received the 2005 Outstanding Alumni awards. Mark Valdez received the 2005 Outstanding Friend Award on behalf of Professional Turf Products of Dallas. Cecil Bittle, BSA, MS, of Hope received the 2005 Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Reed is senior administrator for research and federal relations at Delaware State University, where he is also professor of plant science and natural resources. Before earning his doctoral degree in Plant Science (horticulture/physiology) at the U of A, he earned a bachelor’s degree at

Arkansas AM&N College (now UA, Pine Bluff) and his master’s degree in horticulture/physiology at the Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Abbas Shirazi is a research horticulturist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

After earning his undergraduate degree in Horticulture at the U of A, he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in Horticulture at Oregon State University.

Bittle taught vocational agriculture at Imboden, then he worked for the College of Agriculture while in graduate school at the U of A. After earning his master’s degree, he was director of the Southwest Research and Extension Center at Hope until he retired in 1977. He still lives in Hope.