US: Noted potato expert Joseph Sieczka passed away

Joseph Sieczka was a valued colleague and friend to many in the US and international potato industry. For more than two decades, Mr. Sieczka worked as coordinator at Cornell University’s Long Island Horticultural Research Center in Riverhead, where his research involved various crops, but focused primarily on potatoes. He was a renowned potato expert and had served as president of the Potato Association of America and co-authored two editions of its handbook. “My level of respect for my dad went up another notch when I saw what the people who worked in the field thought of him,” said his daughter Liz, who at one point worked alongside her father at the lab in an outreach program focused on pesticides and the Colorado potato beetle. Ms. Sieczka remembered her father as someone who could be very serious at times, especially when he spoke in his deep, stern voice. But then, he’d break out in song.  Mr. Sieczka is remembered as a generous, loving family man known for his singing and dancing. He died Sunday at his Mattituck home. Read more