The Agricultural Foundation of California State University, Fresno, announced the addition of Joe L. Del Bosque and Dianne S. Nury to its board of directors.
Del Bosque is owner of Del Bosque Farms in Firebaugh and a 1975 Fresno State plant science and agronomy graduate. The son of a migrant farmworker family, Del Bosque grows melons, almonds, asparagus, processing tomatoes and cherries on his 2,000-acre farm.
In October, he was honored as the 2015 Agriculturist of the Year by the Fresno Chamber of Commerce and is a governor-appointed member of the California Water Commission.
He is a member of the Central Valley Community Foundation board of directors and past chairperson for the AgSafe nonprofit association. He hosted President Barack Obama and Governor Jerry Brown during a Valley visit in February 2014 to show them the effects of the state drought on his farm.
Nury, a 1982 Fresno State business administration and marketing graduate, has served as president and CEO of the family-owned Vie-Del Company in Fresno since 1991. One of the state’s largest bulk winery, distillery and fruit juice processing operations, Vie-Del Company contracts with 1,000 growers in the Central Valley. She joined Vie-Del in 1985 and was named vice president in 1988.
She currently serves as vice chair for the Fresno State Department of Viticulture and Enology Industry Advisory Board and St. Agnes board of directors, and she is a past chair of the Wine Institute and National Juice Products Association. In 2010, she was named to the USDA Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee, which advises U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on related issues.
The Agricultural Foundation board of directors includes chairperson Pat Ricchiuti, P-R Farms; vice chair Larry Layne, Sanwa Bank (retired); secretary and University President Joseph I. Castro; and treasurer Dan Errotabere, Errotabere Ranches.
Other members of the board include H. Clay Daulton, Daulton Ranch; Richard Matoian, American Pistachio Growers; and Sandra Witte, interim dean for the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.
The Agricultural Foundation includes 27 enterprise units that provide Fresno State students with hands-on experience by operating and managing the University Agricultural Laboratory.
Livestock, field crops, orchards, vineyards, horticulture nursery and other farm enterprises composes the 1,000-acre campus farm. Many of the products grown, harvested, processed, produced and created by Fresno State students are showcased and sold at the Rue and Gwen Gibson Farm Market.
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