By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

PERRY, Ill. -- Gail Emerson felt surrounded by memories on a wagon ride tour during the Orr Research Center's fall field day.

Her parents and grandfather owned the farm that became the center 30 years ago, and she joined more than 250 others who turned out Monday to celebrate the anniversary and the ongoing unique partnership between the University of Illinois and John Wood Community College.

Emerson's mom, the late Mary Ellen Orr, who served as a longtime JWCC trustee, would have enjoyed the celebration of the center's impact over the past three decades.

"She would have been proud," Emerson said.

Crop and beef tours highlighted ongoing work at the center, and a special program recognized the men and women who worked hard to turn the dream of an agricultural research center in West-Central Illinois into a reality.

"The sense of passion that this local community brought to this conversation helped inspire us and helped create the entity we know as the Orr Center today," said Bob Easter, professor and dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.

"This is a great project and has been a great project for 30 years. The beneficiaries are students who walk out the back door and see some of the latest research going on in the world, the U of I and general public," said Larry Fischer, JWCC's vice president for instruction.

"Each institution leveraged its ability to be better than what we could have been by ourselves at this location," he said. "I have no idea why this model is not duplicated across every state of the nation. This is the way good ag education is to be delivered."

Easter's travels to see how agriculture is done in other countries only reinforced that American agriculture is the envy of the rest of the world.

Other farmers have good soil, sunshine and work hard, but Easter said what sets American agriculture apart is the "partnership" between citizens with a desire to do a job very well, the private sector engaged in supporting their interest and the university and other institutions to partner with the citizens group.

"I can't think of many places where the three factors come together in a better way than here on this Orr Center," Easter said.

JWCC President Tom Klincar said the district was founded on three pillars -- manufacturing, transportation, or trucking to get products to market, and agriculture. Work with agriculture, and the partnership with the university in the Orr Center, "got us to where we are today," Klincar said. "We're here to stay."

-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379