Steve Matthiasson
2007 AAIE Member of the Year
By Cliff Ohmart
For anyone who has been an active member in AAIE for the last several years it is
probably no surprise that Steve was presented with the AAIE Member of the Year Award
for 2007. He is devoted to the mission of AAIE, an incredibly hard worker, and carries
out his profession with integrity. He has come by these characteristics in a manner that is
different to many PCAs.
Steve received his Bachelor’s Degree from Whittier College, which the last time I looked
is not a hotbed for Agricultural Sciences. However, if there is one thing my experience
as a practicing PCA taught me, it is that advising growers on pest management issues is
about 90% psychology and about 10% biology. So Steve’s humanities classes at Whittier
built a great foundation for meeting the challenges to dealing with people in Ag.
He then went off and became co-owner in a bicycle messenger service in San Francisco
for a couple of years. I am not sure what skills this provided him as a future PCA other
than to develop great lung capacity and leg strength. However, it did give him a pretty
rough and tumble experience, which can sometimes describe the life of a PCA. His
persuasive ability, which is always important for a PCA, came to the fore when he
decided he wanted to attend University of California Davis and talked his way into the
Department of Viticulture and Enology even though he had no Ag background.
After finishing at UC Davis with a Masters Degree he took at job with Four Seasons
Agriculture where I understand he developed some very interesting methods for
monitoring for gophers in walnut orchards. Who would have thought you could do that
by setting up a tent in the orchard, sleep over night and wait for them to come up through
the floor? His next stop was when I hired him to help the growers of the LodiWoodbridge Winegrape Commission write the Lodi Winegrower’s Workbook: A selfassessment of integrated farming practices. Steve is co-author of this pioneering
document which has now influenced the wine industry is not only California but
Washington State, New York and Michigan. After two years Steve took a job as
Viticulturist at R. H. Phillips for a year. Since then he has been a Viticulturist for
Premier Viticulture in Napa Valley.
Steve is a special person and dedicated AAIE member and very deserving of the award.
Addenda
By Devin Carroll
Steve Matthiasson first joined the AAIE Board in 2001 when President Gary Glidden
recruited him as Conference Chair for the 2002 Conference in Radisson Hotel Berkeley
Marina, “IPM and Monitoring: Back to Basics with New Technology”.
Steve was AAIE President for the 2003 term leading up to the 2004 Conference in at
Embassy Suites in Napa, with Chair Stephen Flanagan.
Steve’s wife Jill Klein was the AAIE Executive Director from 2001 to 2005.
Steve is President of Premier Viticulture.
Jill and Steve have developed their own line of high-end wines. They have a small farm
where they grow wine grapes in addition to other fruits. The couple has two sons.