Deceased April 3, 2012
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In Memory
Among the highlights of our class's wacky graduation was the image of a bearded young man, cap tipped back on his head, who hopped up to receive his diploma wearing a dashiki. That image remains with us as we mourn the loss of our irreverent classmate who died on April 3. Josh Posner traveled the globe and enjoyed a remarkable career as an internationally-celebrated agronomist, but he never lost his spontaneity or his zest for people and new ideas. Dave Edie said it best at a crowded memorial service in Madison, Wis., when he explained that Josh embodied the definitions of the word "embrace." He would clasp you, accept you, include you, and take up your cause as his own.
Josh came to Amherst from New Rochelle, N.Y., the son of politically active parents and the product of a diverse, middle class community deeply committed to the humanistic ideals of the time. At the college, Josh was a standout from the start: people knew, respected and remembered him. He rowed on the varsity crew, was active in politics and, thanks to his friendship with Jim Steinman, signed up to act in Marat/DeSade (as a stoic prison guard) and the famous Dream Engine (he didn't mind the nude scenes). Josh majored in history and loved his studies, but his vision was always above and beyond the Pioneer Valley. He joined the Peace Corps upon graduation and looked forward to a posting in Africa.
Two features of his Peace Corps years set the course for Josh's life. First, upon arrival in the Ivory Coast he was given a bicycle and a meager supply of seeds and tasked with starting vegetable gardens at local village schools. He found this combination--teaching poor people to grow their own food and a hands-on task--irresistible. Josh threw himself into the work and was so successful he decided to embark on a career as an agronomist. He enrolled in Cornell's Agriculture program when he returned to the states (receiving his Ph.D. in 1978) and then began a series of assignments in Central and South America (Honduras, Bolivia, Peru), West Africa (Ivory Coast, Senegal and Gambia) and (in the last decade) in Yunnan Province in China. He consulted with local governments and conducted his own research, creating in the process a small army of admirers, students and life-long colleagues. Josh also held temporary posts at the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Montpellier and served terms with the International Potato Institute and the Consortium for Sustainable Development in the Andes (CONDESAN). The University of Wisconsin appointed him to its faculty in 1989 and he made Madison his base while continuing his overseas research. At Wisconsin he also directed the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems trial which conducts pioneering research on low input and organic farming techniques.
The second life-changing feature of Josh's Peace Corps service was the presence of Jill Kennedy, a 1969 NYU graduate who soon joined him in Ivory Coast. Jill was as resilient and adventuresome as Josh. They were married in 1972 and when Josh began at Cornell, Jill entered the doctoral program there in cross cultural psychology. Jill and Josh made a formidable team. With their two children, Jessica (born in Honduras in 1979) and Matthew (born in Senegal in 1983) they established a lively home where an international cast of visitors, colleagues and students were a steady feature of their active and peripatetic lives. And they always found time to shower affection on their twin granddaughters.
During Josh's 18-month battle with lymphoma he never lost his warmth or his enthusiasm for his family or his global array of supporters. He delighted in their achievements and remained determined to defeat his disease. He lost only one battle in his life; he won all the rest.
Frederick E. Hoxie '69