Alumni Create New Opportunities For Future Students

Three Jordan College alumni, Ron Samuel, John Gorter and Carol Maughn Goerter, are giving a new generation students extra support through their recent donations to the Fresno State Heritage Society.

Samuel was raised in Los Banos on a large ranching operation and thought that would also be his career path.

However, the wide variety of opportunities at Fresno State, especially through the Alpha Gamma Rho agricultural fraternity, opened new doors. That included his first job with a grocery wholesaler, which led to several other related positions at successful area companies. 

He later helped start Pacific West Produce Marketing before the company was sold more than 20 years ago. Today as an Ameriprise private wealth financial advisor, he still proudly sports a rolodex full of agricultural clients.

“Agriculture is so great because you’re always surrounded by such hard-working, trustworthy people,” Samuel said. “Likewise, the campus farm and the agricultural programs and students have that same feel, and are so vital to Fresno State and the community.”

Those same feelings are shared by John Gorter, a classmate and AGR fraternity brother, and his wife Carol Maughn Gorter. Both received Fresno State agricultural economics degrees after growing up on Sacramento-area farms.

John utilized his plant science concentration locally for 45 years as a senior pest control advisor for GAR Bennett and as a Reedley College farm manager before he retired last October.

Carol serves as a Bank of America senior vice president and is the Risk Executive for its food and agriculture portfolio in the Western United States.

“From our first visit to Fresno State (as Consumnes River College livestock judging team members), we knew it was the complete package of practical and theoretical learning, just like it is today,” John Gorter said. 

All three of the former classmates have reconnected to campus agricultural programs through the Ag One Foundation and its programs that connect the alumni and industry to the Jordan College. Now, those ties have led them to support a new generation of students through their estate planning and the campus Heritage Society. 

“One big difference today is the cost of college,” Carol Gorter said. “(By using Ag One to join the Heritage Society) this is a special opportunity for us to take a little burden off of students. They’re the future leaders agriculture, which makes this is a wise investment.”

* To learn more about their connections to the college & careers, read these in-depth interviews with Ron Samuel and John and Carol Maughn Gorter.