After 21 years at Purdue, 17 of which as the Extension Specialist, I will be leaving Purdue University. Kim and I will be moving to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where Kim will become the Director of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture in mid-August. I am what’s considered a “spousal hire” or “opportunity hire” in university speak which means if the school wants one person bad enough, they’ll make room for their spouse if qualified. It works out as a win-win in this case, as an already strong turf program at UNL will have 3 of their 4 professors retiring in the next year or two. So I will be starting in March of 2010 with Extension, teaching, and research responsibilities almost identical to what I currently have at Purdue. My feelings are very mixed as the turf staff and administration at Purdue, the Midwest Regional Turf Foundation, and the entire Turf Industry have been very, very good to me. On the other hand, Nebraska offers the chance to start over, tackle new opportunities, and hopefully build on an already strong turf program undergoing significant changes with retirements. We’re still working out the details, but my plans are to stay at Purdue to teach the fall semester, maintain the fall turf educational events, step down as Executive Director of the MRTF after the Indiana Green Expo in January and then move to Nebraska sometime in late February. I can’t say enough on how much I have appreciated the relationship and support that the turf program enjoys with the turf industry in Indiana and the Midwest and I’ll go to Nebraska with incredibly high expectations. I’ll still be working at full speed at Purdue until late February, so please let us know if we can help. Thanks.