The Heart of the N.C. PSI: David Peele

David Peele’s agricultural roots run deep, and so does his commitment to helping ensure that the industry can overcome challenges it faces now and in the future. For this year’s Day of Giving at North Carolina State University, the retired agribusiness executive is demonstrating that commitment once again.

Peele’s gift to the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative’s enhancement fund is intended to support undergraduate and graduate students. He calls them the university’s “engines of research” and a key to ensuring that farmers have access to the knowledge and technology generated through the N.C. PSI.

As he’s said in the past, “If they keep that information inside those four walls, the Plant Sciences Building is going to be a failure. They have to take all that information, as NC State has done in the past, to educate people in agriculture.”

A lifelong commitment to agriculture

When asked his reason for supporting agriculture, Peele answers simply: “It’s in my blood.”

The son of a farmer and schoolteacher, Peele grew up in Aurora, a small town in Eastern North Carolina. He is a two-time NC State graduate, having earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering in 1973 and his doctorate in crop science in 1994. He also holds a master’s in soil science from the Ohio State University.

Peele joined the RJ Reynolds-owned botanical processing company Avoca in 1978 as an agronomist and gradually worked his way up the ladder. By 2000, Peele had assumed responsibility for all aspects of Avoca’s business.

In 2003, he and business partner David Holmes bought the company and achieved major success by marketing clary sage extracts as laundry detergent ingredients and essential oils. Though he retired from Avoca in 2019, he has continued to serve as an agricultural industry consultant.

In addition to contributing his time to NC State as a board member for the N.C. Agricultural Foundation and N.C. Agricultural and Life Sciences Research Foundation, Peele has been a loyal supporter of the N.C. PSI.

Peele and his wife, Mary, named a research bay in the Plant Sciences Building’s state-of-the-art greenhouse bay, and after her death in 2021, Peele named a second one in honor of her memory.

Peele has also supported a network of North Carolina Cooperative Extension agents who help beta test tools and technology developed by N.C. PSI-affiliated scientists.

Ensuring that innovation makes its way to the farm

Peele’s latest gift is aimed at supporting students engaged in research conducted by N.C. PSI-affiliated faculty members and programs offered through the initiative’s Education and Workforce Development Platform.

Platform Director and Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology Terri Long said, “Dr. Peele’s gift is invaluable. It is being used to celebrate and encourage interdisciplinary research conducted by graduate students who work tirelessly to push the boundaries of science.”

The platform funds internships, awards, scholarships and fellowship for plant sciences students, and it organizes industry tours, career panels, research symposiums, networking events and other professional development programs.

Peele’s gift will also go to support student involvement with the N.C. PSI’s Seed2Grow program, which helps early stage companies with ties to NC State commercialize their agricultural technologies.

As N.C. PSI Executive Director Adrian Percy noted, “Through our education and workforce development programs, we are seeking to develop the next generation of problem solvers.

“Many of the ideas that these students present are promising from a commercial perspective, and we would like to also support students to hone their entrepreneurship skill sets,” he said. “David’s gift will go a long way toward helping us do that.”

Peele believes that supporting such efforts will help ensure that leading-edge plant sciences’ knowledge and technology make it out of the university’s classrooms and laboratories and into the hands of farmers across the state and beyond.

As he puts it, “What better way can you get the knowledge out than by teaching students?”