George M. Darrow

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George M. Darrow (1889-1983) was known as the foremost American authority on strawberries, worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) for forty-six years (1911-1957) as a pomologist and small fruits breeder. He was born George McMillan Darrow on a dairy farm in Springfield, Vermont on February 2, 1889. He graduated from Middlebury College with a BA in 1910 and from Cornell University with an MA in horticulture in 1911. In his career with the USDA-ARS from 1911-1957 he authored over 230 published works. While the bulk of his career was spent in Maryland (Glenn Dale and later Beltsville), in the late 1920s-early 1930s he initiated the small fruit breeding programs in Oregon for the USDA. While he is predominantly known for his strawberry breeding, he had an impact on all small fruit crops including, blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry as well as with his personal passion for daylilies. In 1956-1957 he surveyed the native strawberries of Chile and collected germplasm in Andean South America. After he retired in 1957 he wrote his classic book "The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology" which was published in 1966 and later placed online by the USDA-ARS at [1] He died in 1983 in Maryland.