Despite cancer-related ills in recent years, citrus breeder Fred Gmitter continued his work passion, which included development of trees that were more tolerant of or resistant to HLB.
“That was our mission,” said Jude Grosser, his fellow citrus breeder at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Citrus Research and Education Center.
Grosser said Gmitter continued to work eight-hour days until several weeks ago. A pinched nerve stopped him from driving, and his cancer progressed rapidly. Gmitter died on Sept. 19 at age 75.
“His mind never shut down until it shut off,” Grosser said.
In addition to passion for his work, Gmitter kept working because of his long-term relationships with colleagues, said Peter Chaires, executive director of New Varieties Development and Management Corp. Those colleagues were many and included Grosser and Bill Castle, UF/IFAS professor emeritus.
“We (Castle, Gmitter and Grosser) were the three amigos,” Grosser said.
Gmitter and Grosser received the rare CREC Resident Professorship Award in April, which has only been bestowed four other times in CREC’s 109-year history. It is the highest academic honor available at the CREC. At a celebration recognizing the honor, CREC Director Michael Rogers said Gmitter and Grosser are internationally recognized among the top tier of citrus breeders and geneticists. Rogers said in response to HLB, Gmitter and Grosser agreed to a fast-track model for release of citrus varieties. “The work is paying off,” Rogers said in April. “We are now seeing new citrus varieties with significantly improved tolerance to HLB.”
In a July 2017 Citrus Industry article about Gmitter, Chaires said the citrus breeder “finds the best in everyone he encounters and never misses the opportunity for a practical joke or witty retort.” Chaires added that wherever citrus is grown in the world, “they not only know Dr. Gmitter; they will refer to him as their American friend.”
Grosser reported that within days of Gmitter’s death, condolences were flooding into the CREC from around the world. He shared some of them:
Xiuxin Deng, professor at Huazhong Agricultural University in China, noted that he worked years ago at Gmitter’s lab at the CREC. “His care and guidance have benefitted me throughout my life,” Deng wrote. He added that Gmitter’s former students “can now be found throughout (China).”
Alejandro Tena, director of the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research, a famed citrus research center in Spain, called Gmitter “an outstanding scientist, but also a warm, approachable and generous colleague.”
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