USU Regional Campuses: Donna B. Minch Retires After 23 Years at USU

Donna B. Minch, Utah State University’s Plant Science Department Regional Campus program coordinator and student advisor, is retiring after a 23-year career with the university.

Minch received her bachelor’s degree in plant science from USU in 1976. While an undergrad she worked as a teaching assistant for LaMar Anderson’s floral design classes and taught floral design for Extension class division. Minch, her husband, Steve, and their daughters, Jessie and Beckie, traveled for 15 years with the U.S. Army and the family’s last duty assignment was Utah. In 1992, she was hired by Bill Varga as a horticulturist at the Farmington Botanical Gardens to work with Master Gardeners. Minch also team-taught a class in Logan with Varga.

In 1995 she was asked to assist Craig Aston to expand the off-campus horticulture program along the Wasatch Front and in Price, Blanding, Moab and St. George.

“Donna has served as an instructor, advisor and friend to our horticulture students across the USU system,” said Vice Provost Dave R Woolstenhulme. “She has helped grow an outstanding horticulture program and enabled students statewide to gain access to higher education and increased employment opportunities within their communities. Her absence as a mentor and colleague will be felt by many.”

As a young child growing up in Massachusetts Minch knew her love was plants. At age 11 she moved into the world of horticulture and entrepreneurship with the help of her father and sister, making and selling Christmas wreaths. She went on to graduate from Rittner’s School of Floral Design in Boston, before going to Utah State to study Plant Science.

Now a permanent and important fixture in the Horticulture world, Minch proposed and championed the expansion of the horticulture program for regional campus students along the Wasatch Front from an associate of applied science to a bachelor’s of science in horticulture. The first USU bachelor’s degree in horticulture was awarded in 1998 and the department has continued to produce valued graduates from the main Logan campus as well as USU’s regional campuses.

Minch is an award-winning advisor. She was the first regional campus advisor to be selected for the USU Robins Award in 2012, and in 2013 she received a Certificate of Merit for outstanding advising from National Academic Advising Association.

“The students I have advised and taught at USU are lifelong friends to me,” Minch said. “I’m so grateful for all the instructors and my department heads who are dedicated to the students and the regional campus program. I’ve worked with so many great people in the USU system who have really helped make it a success.”

Minch will return to USU periodically as an adjunct instructor. In retirement, she and her husband, Steve, (also a USU alum) plan to travel and see their children and grandchildren more. Donna will enjoy spending time in her garden again.

USU Contact: Adam Cades, 801-584-9942, Adam.cades@usu.edu