“I would describe him as an icon in the specialty crop industry and the farming industry,” said Mike Pullins, owner of Champaign Berry Farm in neighboring Champaign County.
Pullins said he knew Fulton for around 35 years from his work with the Ohio Fruit Growers Society and the Ohio Vegetable and Potato Growers through the Ohio Farm Bureau and as the owner of farm specializing in raspberries.
“Bill was dedicated not only to his own farming operation but the whole industry … not just in Ohio but nationally and the whole North American continent,” Pullins said.
He pointed to Fulton’s innovation and leadership in areas such as no till farming, irrigation, hydrocooling sweet corn and farm marketing. He also helped organize the North American Strawberry Growers Association.
Fulton and his wife, Joyce, ran the farm and farm market and were instrumental in the start of Troy’s Strawberry Festival, which is celebrating its 40th year in the weeks leading to this year’s June festival weekend. The Fultons were married more than 61 years.
“Joyce and Bill have always been so supportive of the Strawberry Festival from day one,” said Dee Mahan, a long-time festival committee member and festival chair in 1991 the year the Fultons were saluted as the parade grand marshals.
The Fultons played a part in the festival beginnings when organizers initially looked at celebrating corn, Mahan said. “Bill was instrumental in it being strawberries over corn,” she said.
Doug Trostle, one of the festival’s early organizers and the 1978 chairman said Tuesday that strawberries were chosen because they ripened in the spring before all the competing festivals.
“Bill was responsible, based on his experience and expertise, for recommending the festival be held the second weekend of June. Later the date was changed to the first weekend but Bill was always willing to guarantee the participants would have berries, even if he had to purchase from farmers in Tennessee or Michigan, depending on the weather,” Trostle recalled.
“Bill would reserve fields for the various clubs and organizations and was often seen sitting in his truck laughing at the many volunteers trekking through his muddy fields picking the best of his crop. I sometimes felt Bill was embarrassed by all the attention but without Bill, and his wife Joyce, the Troy Strawberry Festival would not be what it is today,” Trostle said.
As she compiled information for the anniversary year, Mahan said mention of the Fultons’ and their festival participation were extensive.
The farm today provides an estimated one-third of the strawberries used during the festival, Cori Schweser, festival manager, said.
A graduate of The Ohio State University, Fulton was inducted into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1995 and received numerous other recognitions. The Agricultural Hall of Fame noted he was a pioneer in the use of plastic mulches and row covers for production of vegetables and small fruits and in the use of centerpivot irrigation systems and trickle irrigation.
“Fulton shared his innovative farming techniques with Ohio growers to benefit the industry as a whole,” according information from the hall of fame.
A private graveside service will be held. The family will receive from 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Baird Funeral Home, 555 N. Markety St., Troy.
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