A Passion For Ag
November 28, 2011 
She said her husband, who died in June 2010 at the age of 69, was involved with many causes, but Hartnell, where he served on the board for 14 years, was the most important to him. “He was a strong advocate of career-oriented education,” she said, “even when it wasn’t a popular thing to be.”
The master of ceremonies for the dedication, Margaret D’Arrigo-Martin, noted that the influence of Inman, who was instrumental in launching the ag division for the center, was huge. In John’s time there, enrollment skyrocketed from 76 to 600-plus, and it became the first community college in California to offer a certificate in food safety.
Scholarship Funded
Jim Bogart, the president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, said he thinks about Inman every day, and how much he misses him. But the day of the dedication was different. “The second I got here, I realized John’s here,” said Bogart. “You look at the classrooms, the instructors, the students, and their passion for agriculture — John Inman is here.”
Beside’s the dean’s office, Inman’s name will live on most appropriately through a scholarship. Bob Martin, general manager of Rio Farms, the huge operation that produces Gills Onions, headed up the effort to build an endowment to support the scholarship for Hartnell ag students. Fund-raising is not one of his favorite tasks, said Martin, because normally when people find out what you’re up to, they don’t return your phone calls.
“But I have to say this was probably the easiest job I ever took on,” said Martin. “Once the word got out there about John’s scholarship fund, people were contacting me and e-mails rolled in.”
The Bernard Osher Foundation made a commitment to match donations up to $15,000, and they hit that mark in no time, said Martin, who added that he’s thankful Inman’s tireless efforts will live on in perpetuity. “John Inman left a huge and lasting legacy, not just for Hartnell College, but for the entire ag industry, and not just in the Salinas Valley, but the entire globe,” said Martin. “I say that because John traveled the world over looking for ideas that could be converted and utilized by vegetable operations involving planting, transplanting, harvesting or pest and disease control in the Salinas Valley, but you and I know that in doing that, he was also leaving ideas in the heads of ag engineers wherever he went.”