Montana regains Cal Poly professor

After seven years of teaching at Cal Poly, professor Ron de Yong will return to his home state to work as the agricultural director of Montana. He will replace Nancy K. Peterson, who passed away last month.

“I made the move because the governor of Montana offered me the position of ag director of the state of Montana,” de Yong said. “In California you have the director that runs the Department of Agriculture under Gov. Schwarzenegger. I’m running the Department of Agriculture in the state of Montana under Gov. Schweitzer.”

Agribusiness department chair Wayne Howard says that de Yong epitomizes what Cal Poly’s practical approach to learning is all about.

“We’re proud that Ron has been selected for doing this; it’s an indication of his expertise in the politics of agricultural policy,” Howard said.

Since coming to teach at Cal Poly seven years ago, de Yong has actually spent much of his time traveling to and from his family farm in Montana.

“I was going back and forth,” he said. “I’ve been teaching down at Cal Poly for seven years. For the first five years I’d come down and teach for nine months, and then my wife and I would go back up to Montana and farm for three months on the family farm. I didn’t have time to get the crops planted so I had to hire the neighbors to plant the crops. But I always had the time to do the irrigation and the harvest before we came back to Cal Poly.”

De Yong is originally from Montana, but he moved to San Luis Obispo with his wife searching for a warmer climate.

“We looked at some places like Arizona and New Mexico, but San Luis Obispo was the place that we really liked.”

De Yong felt that Cal Poly was in need of an agribusiness policy class and showed interest in teaching the course.

The move from the classroom will be an adjustment for de Yong, but he definitely doesn’t lack experience in the field. According to Cal Poly’s agribusiness faculty directory, de Young has an educational background that includes a master’s degree in economics, as well as a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science and philosophy.

De Yong began his new position on Sept. 4 and is excited about some of the changes it will bring.

“Instead of teaching policy, I get to do policy. I get to implement it,” he said.

“I love Montana. I love the producers. I just love the state; it’s just a big sky country, wide open. It’s going to be fun just visiting with all the producers from around the state, it’s going to be fun trying to help them with new options like renewable energy.”

Despite his excitement, there will be some things that de Yong will miss about the Central Coast.

“I love teaching. I love the kids. I love to get kids to think instead of just to regurgitate information,” de Yong said. “I like to have them think about policy, and what we could do in the future, and how we can change things; not just learn what we’ve done in the past. So I’m going to miss the kids. And, of course, I’m going to miss the Central Coast and the weather and everything. It was just really a nice place to live. Our youngest son has moved up there from Southern California, so we’re going to have people, family and friends that we can come and visit in San Luis Obispo. So we’ll be there to visit.”

De Yong says that he will miss being on campus and hopes that Cal Poly continues to implement their hands-on learning techniques.

“You need the mix of both: the academic people to teach the theory as well as the people from the real world who have experience implementing that theory,” he said. “Cal Poly has a nice mix, and they need to make sure that they continue that they get people who have academic credentials and also experience.”