[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 163 (Thursday, October 27, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      RECOGNIZING THE RETIREMENT AND SERVICE OF DANIEL E. MULLINS

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                            HON. JEFF MILLER

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 27, 2011

  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Daniel 
Mullins, upon his retirement from the University of Florida Institute 
of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), Santa Rosa County Extension 
Office. For over 40 years, Daniel Mullins has dedicated his career to 
educating and serving the Gulf Coast region through his passion for 
horticultural science.
  A graduate of Mississippi State University, Daniel Mullins joined the 
University of Florida IFAS Extension office in Escambia County in 1970 
and became the first horticulture agent in the Florida Panhandle and 
west of Tallahassee. He established a weekly gardening clinic, local 
nursery association chapter, published a weekly gardening column in the 
Pensacola News Journal, and served as part of a team documenting 
Northwest Florida beach dune plants. He also visited Europe to study 
cut flower production in Holland and applied those lessons to Florida. 
After seven years in Escambia County, he returned home to his native 
Mississippi to open his own landscape business, The Country Gardener.
  Returning to Florida in 1989, Mr. Mullins began work with the Santa 
Rosa County Extension Office as the Commercial Horticulture Agent. Mr. 
Mullins was responsible for Extension educational programs for 
specialty crop producers of fruits and vegetables and the horticultural 
services industry, including nurseries, garden centers, and landscape 
professionals.
  In Santa Rosa County, Mr. Mullins helped establish the Florida 
Digital Diagnostic System, designed a diagnostic lab that was included 
in the Santa Rosa County's Extension facility, taught plant grafting to 
nursery personnel and 4-H youth for more than 15 years and helped 
establish the Panhandle Butterfly House. He was the first person to 
identify chestnut blight on Chinquapin in Florida, and established a 
low-chill apple demonstration orchard to teach the importance of 
variety selection.
  Throughout the course of his career, Mr. Mullins has received over 
fifty awards and honors, most at the state, Southeast regional, or 
national levels. Mr. Mullins also wrote over 1,200 newspaper columns, 
conducted over 3,000 field visits, and served as the National 
Horticulture Chair for the National Association of County Agricultural 
Agents in 2002, as well as both the Audit Committee Chair and 
Communications Committee Chair for the Florida Association of County 
Agricultural Agents. As he begins retirement, he leaves behind a 
remarkable career full of accomplishments and one through which he has 
touched the lives of thousands in Northwest Florida.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States Congress, I am privileged 
to congratulate Daniel Mullins on his retirement and thank him for his 
service to the Gulf Coast. My wife Vicki and I wish him and his wife 
Vickie, and their three children, Katie, Sarah, and Jackson, all the 
best.

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