UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 9
October 31, 1996
Two ag faculty honored for teaching excellence

     Two of the College of Agricultural Sciences' faculty-Carl
Toensmeyer, food and resource economics, and Gary Smith, plant
and soil sciences- were honored as recipients of the University's
1996 excellence-in-teaching awards.
     Toensmeyer instructs students in food and fiber marketing;
strategic selling and buyer communication; futures markets; food
retailing and product management.
     He also deals with his students individually, helping
freshmen believe in themselves, encouraging unfocused students to
set goals and see the possibilities that exist-all good
preparation for the inevitable ups and downs of the work world.
     Toensmeyer, who says he views each student as an individual,
has an approach that produces results. In addition to the 1996
excellence-in-teaching award, he previously received the honor in
1984, and, in 1989, he was a recipient of the excellence-in-
advising award.
     "I owe my success to all the students I have taught over the
years," Toensmeyer says. "My teaching philosophy-a participatory-
based approach-came from two people, my college composition
instructor and my Ph.D. adviser, Jarvis Cain. These two teachers
were constantly available and always took that extra step."
     On the UD faculty since 1969, Toensmeyer has taught
thousands of students, and he keeps in touch with more than 75
alumni on a regular basis. In fact, he spends part of the summer
driving up and down the Eastern Seaboard, calling on former
students now employed at such companies as Dole, Kellogg's, Fresh
World and Perdue. He also takes plenty of notes-so he can share
news of the latest advances in the field with future students.
     Smith, who works in the landscape design studio, is known to
incorporate storytelling and other novel learning techniques,
including team-building exercises, to foster cooperative
learning.
     He describes his teaching philosophy as "flexible and
innovative."
     "I have a mission to draw attention to two things that we as
a culture don't give enough attention to," Smith says. "First, I
want to foster a strong sense of caring for our planet and,
second, I want to promote individual creativity. As a teacher and
as a landscape designer, I try to achieve those goals in
everything I do."
     Smith says many are accustomed to working in the hard
sciences where objectivity is paramount. "I help them see that
there are no absolute answers in this field," he said. "Landscape
design involves very intuitive and subjective ways of looking at
the world."
     After earning an undergraduate and a master's degree from
the University of Pennsylvania, Smith owned a successful five-
person design firm during the 1980s. He began teaching part-time
at Penn during this period. By 1989, he had made the decision to
join the UD faculty and "get my message out more widely through
teaching."
     He continues to design for a wide range of public and
private gardens, greenways and urban landscapes. He has developed
master plans for such locations as the Delaware Memorial Bridge
greenway, woodlands at Tyler Arboretum, Buena Vista and Belmont
Hall state conference centers, and, most recently, Peirce's Woods
at Longwood Gardens. This summer, he began a sabbatical to
develop a master plan for all of Longwood Gardens, a
comprehensive document that will examine the status of Longwood
today and the direction it will develop in the future.
     Smith says all of his professional projects become learning
experiences for his students through case study work, field trips
and internship opportunities.
     "I turn down a lot of projects," Smith notes. "My main
criterion for accepting a project is, 'What is its value to my
teaching program?'"
                                                 -Margo McDonough