Schillinger honored on Senate floor

OLYMPIA – A Senate resolution honoring agronomist Bill Schillinger passed Feb. 21.

Senate Resolution 8645 honors Schillinger for his service to farmers; it was introduced by Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville.

Schillinger is a longtime research agronomist who retired from Washington State University in January.

"It's with sadness that we see Bill retiring but for all of the incredible work over 30 years, we wish Bill the very best and say, 'Thank you,'" Schoesler said in a speech on the Senate floor two weeks ago.

Schillinger was raised on a dryland wheat farm near Odessa and earned a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Eastern Washington University in 1974. He earned his master of science degree in agronomy from University of California-Davis in 1983 and a doctorate in agronomy from Oregon State University-Corvallis in 1992.

Schillinger spent nearly 30 years conducting research at the Washington State University dryland research station near Lind.

He was the principal investigator of long-term dryland and irrigated cropping systems experiments.

Schillinger also co-authored "Soil and Water Conservation Advances in the United States," published by the American Society of Agronomy in 2010, as well as dozens of other publications and journal articles on soil sciences and agronomy.