06/26/06 Documenting a Legend

Documenting a legend. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Telling stories are fun. Telling true stories about successful people is even more fun. The late Grady Auvil was an inventive, opinionated fruit farmer who spent a lifetime blazing trails and planting seeds for the future. A new documentary project undertakes a journey into the life of this extraordinary man. Film maker Jamie Howell. HOWELL: The idea came on the heals of a documentary I did for the Washington State Hort Association. In the process of doing that documentary I interviewed Paul King who used to be Grady Auvil's right hand man. He mentioned in passing that boy Grady Auvil would be a great person to do a documentary about and I just couldn't argue with that. Grady Auvil in the fruit industry was legendary really. He had this capacity to spot something that had fantastic potential. He really didn't invent things, he spotted things. So he spotted the Rainier cherry and the Granny Smith and he took those to the next level. He was very much a visionary. Howell says not only are they currently doing interviews but fundraising as well. HOWELL: We've been raising funds from private individuals. We're writing grants because this is a non-profit project in affiliation with Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center so anybody who donates to the project gets a tax write-off for the donation. For more details visit www.auvildoc.org. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.